California Voters Scrap Draconian "Three Strikes" Law | Alternet

California Voters Scrap Draconian "Three Strikes" Law | Alternet:

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Yesterday, voters in California put an end to one of the harshest and least effective sentencing laws in the country. Proposition 36 ensures that no more people are sentenced to life in prison for minor and nonviolent drug law violations. In fact, implementation of the new law will not only bring relief to petty offenders moving forward, but inmates currently serving life sentences for non-serious, non-violent crimes can apply for a new sentence. In these retroactive cases the sentence can only be reduced if a judge determines that the individual is no longer an unreasonable threat to public safety.

“Californians finally appear to be coming to their senses on the basic question of who deserves to spend the rest of his or her life behind bars,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.  “Locking up people for life whose only recent offense was a minor violation of the state’s drug laws never made sense in terms of public safety, finance or morality.  California at last is rejoining the civilized world.”