Drug Offenders and the Criminal Justice System: Will Proposition 36 Treat or Create Problems

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, penalties for drug-related crimes have been growing stricter, with the result that 30 percent of prison inmates in California (and a similar percentage nationally) are there on drug charges. Some of those are there on simple possession or use charges, unrelated to any attempt to sell drugs or pursue other criminal activity. Views about the propriety of such sanctions vary, but some believe such punishments are unwarranted by the crime and that too much public money is being spent incarcerating what they see as minor, largely harmless offenders. Enough people take this viewpoint to have qualified a proposition for the November 2000 California ballot that addresses this situation. The ballot measure is known as Proposition 36.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2000
Accession Number
ADA385227

Entities

People

  • James Chiesa
  • Jeanne Ringel
  • K. J. Riley
  • Patricia A. Ebener
  • Susan Turner

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cost Estimates
  • Crime
  • Criminal Justice System
  • Criminals
  • Drug Abuse
  • Drug Abuse Therapy
  • Drug Addiction
  • Drug Trafficking
  • Health
  • Health Services
  • Law
  • Medical Personnel
  • Mental Disorders
  • Public Health
  • Social Welfare
  • Societies
  • Test And Evaluation

Readers

  • Criminal Law
  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Theoretical Analysis.