Two years ago, California voters were promised that violent sex offenders wouldn’t be released from prison early if they passed Proposition 57, the sweeping ballot initiative allowing the early release of inmates convicted of non-serious and non-violent crimes.
But this month, a Superior Court judge tentatively ruled that sex offenders must be considered for early release under Prop. 57. If the ruling is made final, more than half of the 20,000 inmates now serving time for violent sex offenses could be back on the street.
That was the hidden flaw in Prop. 57. While it promised to keep violent offenders in prison, the list of crimes considered violent under California law is remarkably short. The list doesn’t include raping an unconscious person, or pimping a child, or beating a spouse. Clearly, few voters knew this.
From what I have learned going through the Justice System, the DA typically pumps up the charges considerably. A consensual relationship with a teen is plea bargained into kidnapping and rape by force. Therefore you cannot be sure incarcerated violent felons were ever actually violent.
In my case, there was no intercourse, but the DA threw in one count of 289j – penetration with foreign object of victim under age 14. Sounds terrible, but it was his finger in me one time, (which was my fault and inappropriate I agree).
It was modified to 289i in court, since the victim stated he was a sophomore at the time, but the Court Clerk accidentally left it on my record as 289j and there it stayed during my entire incarceration. Any j sex offense felony is automatically considered violent. In the Women’s prison, inmates beat up anyone whose crime is against a child, so I kept quiet about it and had the charge corrected after I was out.
The assumption in this op-ed is that ALL “sex offenders” are in for sexually violent offenses and are “violent sexual predators.” Sounds like someone wants to sway public opinion so he can be re-elected this year.
Felony hate crimes, assault with a deadly weapon and drive-by shootings may be violent, but they are not sex crimes. They might as well make EVERY crime punishable with lifetime registration.
Sick puppies.
….
Never trust a politician. Even the “good” ones always manage to harm. Can anyone name a truely decent politician??
Great work Janice on the prop 57 case. Can you please tell us when is the ruling considered final? Can the inmatrs file a 602 now? What are the exact steps moving forward on this ruling.
Thanks for all your help
I’d like Jim Cooper to lose his seat.
He’s a craven manipulator of the reptilian parts of the human brain.
Cooper should not be in office.