The California State Supreme Court on Monday ruled that thousands of prisoners convicted of non-violent sex crimes may be eligible for early release under a ballot measure approved by voters four years ago.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye wrote in the unanimous decision, "The initiative's language provides no indication that the voters intended to allow the (Corrections) Department to create a wholesale exclusion from parole consideration based on an inmate's sex offense convictions when the inmate was convicted of a nonviolent felony."
Under California law, violent offenses include crimes such as rape, sodomy and continuous sexual abuse of a child. But the state definition of "violent offenses" leaves out many other crimes such as pimping, incest, indecent exposure and possessing child pornography. Those convicted of these crimes could be eligible for release.
According to KOIN TV, "Sacramento attorney Janice Bellucci, who argued the case and is also executive director of the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws said the ruling could potentially allow parole consideration for approximately 20,000 inmates. Roughly half of those inmates are serving time for sex crimes, while the other half are incarcerated for other offenses like but were previously convicted of a sex crime."
Bellucci called the ruling "a significant victory" for inmates convicted of sex offenses.
Prosecutors had cautioned voters before the initiative passed that the proposal was "…so sloppily and poorly drafted" it would "wreak havoc on public safety."
Proposition 57 was crafted by then-Governor Jerry Brown (D) in 2014 and passed by nearly two-thirds of the voters. The initiative was designed to reduce the state’s prison population, by establishing that any person found guilty of a "nonviolent felony offense" would be eligible for early parole.
Brown has repeatedly said he and other proponents never intended for it to cover sex offenders. Lower courts ruled that the language of the ballot measure means they cannot be excluded from consideration as nonviolent offenders, to which the high court agreed.
The court ruled that the ballot measure "…is not ambiguous concerning its scope regarding offenders who were previously convicted of a registerable sex offense or who are currently convicted of a registerable sex offense that the Department has itself defined as nonviolent."
According to The Associated Press, "…the ballot measure allows officials to consider paroling inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes after they have served their basic sentence and before they have completed sometimes lengthy additional terms for enhancements for things like using a gun, having prior criminal convictions, or being involved in a street gang."
The Daily Wire reported that opponents of Prop 57 raised virtually no money to fight the measure in 2016, while top contributors poured more than $11.8 million into the winning campaign.
The Daily Wire also cited filing documents that showed that donors to the initiative's campaign included George Soros' Open Society Policy Center, the California Democratic Party, and billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer, who went on to fund a drive advocating for the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.
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