How has the passage of the Three Strikes Law in 1994, the moratorium of the Death Penalty in 2019 and the Conversion of California prisons into Rehabilitation Centers in 2005 changed prisons in California?
How have the Corrections and Rehabilitation budgets changed in 20 Years to adjust to all these changes?
CRJ405 Advanced Seminar in Criminal Justice Unit 8
Final Assignment
Capstone Project in Law Enforcement
Jackie Phillips
Criminology, Post University
Dr. Lyndon Godsall
Due: 11:59pm EST Wednesday of Unit 8
Abstract
I found this subject fascinating of how the passage of the Three Strikes Law in 1994, the moratorium of the Death Penalty in 2019 and the Conversion of California prisons into Rehabilitation Centers in 2005 changed prisons in California. The information available is fascinating and endless to discover what is happening here in California’s Prison and Rehabilitation Centers. These subjects are related because they all involve the California prison system, but they are also independent subjects and affect the state in different ways. I was pleased to see these subjects developing, and I am eager to see their outcome in the years ahead, especially since Governer Newsom will be leaving office in 2026 due to already completing two terms as Governor. I was very pleased to see the extensive amount of information available on these subjects, and I consider a lot of information to be a good problem. It means that the topic is important enough to study, even going back to 20 or more years.
Throughout this course, you will be utilizing and applying tactics, strategies, concepts of project management, and strategic planning in conjunction with a research project. All criminal justice agencies experience programs, planning, and research that deal with current or future issues. Most organizations ask their leaders to develop initiatives for the current and future timeframe, which will help the organization achieve its objectives and goals.
Identifying a criminal justice/ law enforcement initiative to be planned for this project
My topic:
How has the passage of the Three Strikes Law in 1994, the moratorium of the Death Penalty in 2019 and the Conversion of California prisons into Rehabilitation Centers in 2005 changed prisons in California? How have the Corrections and Rehabilitation budgets changed in 20 Years to adjust to all these changes?
Provide a description of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
“Vision
We enhance public safety and promote successful community reintegration through education, treatment, and active participation in rehabilitative and restorative justice programs.
Mission
To facilitate the successful reintegration of the individuals in our care back to their communities equipped with the tools to be drug-free, healthy, and employable members of society by providing education, treatment, rehabilitative, and restorative justice programs, all in a safe and humane environment.
Commitment to California Model
CDCR and CCHCS are proud to partner with the California Model which will transform the correctional landscape for our employees and the incarcerated. The California Model is a systemwide change that leverages national and international best practices to address longstanding challenges related to incarceration and institution working conditions, creating a safe, professional, and satisfying workplace for staff as well as rehabilitation for the incarcerated. Additionally, the California Model improves the success of the decarcerated through robust re-entry efforts back into to the community.
Programmatic Goals
- Crime Prevention and Safety: Develop a comprehensive crime prevention program and establish evidence-based research to determine the impact of offender programs within the institutions and community to reduce criminality and victimization.
- Outreach, Partnerships, and Transparency: Seek out partnerships and develop meaningful programs and processes to promote shared responsibility for community safety.
- Health Care Delivery: Ensure an organization design and accompanying systems to provide efficient delivery of quality health care.” (No author given, 2025)
Define the stakeholders of the initiative, including the target audience.
Over the last decade and a half, significant criminal justice reforms in California have resulted in inmate population shifts, changes in sentence length, and new opportunities for rehabilitation and early release. The primary drivers of these changes were a federal court order to reduce prison overcrowding and a series of voter-approved and legislative measures.
Effects of major reform measures
Public Safety Realignment (AB 109, 2011)
Realignment is one of the most significant reforms, shifting the responsibility for supervising and housing lower-level, non-serious, non-violent, and non-sexual felony offenders from the state to individual counties.
- Incarceration location: New and returning offenders are now housed in county jails instead of state prisons.
- Jail conditions: The shift caused severe overcrowding in many county jails, which were designed for short-term stays, not longer sentences. This led to increased violence and created new demands for medical, mental health, and rehabilitation services.
- Parole and supervision: The supervision of many released prisoners, known as Post-Release Community Supervision (PRCS), was transferred from state parole agents to county probation officers. Proposition 47 (2014)
This ballot initiative reclassified several nonviolent felonies—including petty theft and simple drug possession—as misdemeanors.
- Reclassification and resentencing: Inmates previously incarcerated for these offenses were able to petition courts for resentencing under the new, reduced misdemeanor charges, leading to a large number of inmate releases.
- Impact on recidivism: Studies have shown mixed results regarding recidivism. While some policies have resulted in low recidivism rates for specific populations, the effect of Proposition 47 has been a source of debate, with some linking it to increased property crime.
- Impact on rehabilitation: Critics contend that by reducing the incentive to enter court-mandated treatment programs, Proposition 47 has hindered opportunities for some addicted offenders.
Literature Review and Data Presentation
Summary of the meaning of your literature review and data analysis
First Article:
Three Strikes Turns 30 in California and stories from prisoners:
Sawyer, K., 2023, Prison Journalism Project, Stories of Freedom and Denial as Three Strikes Turns 30 in California
What I found fascinating about this article compared to others is that the article is directly about other inmates and their personal interactions with the Three Strikes Law and how it affected their time in prison. Numerous inmates talk about their experiences both in and out of prison. Finally, the group who maintains the website Prison Journalism Project also trains incarcerated inmates to be writers and journalists to help tell their story and the stories of others. This follows along with the conversion of prisons from incarceration to rehabilitation.
I think it is always a great idea to show that inmates are human beings, and we should all keep in mind that they need support both inside the walls of the prison and outside to help them to become better people
Second Article:
San Quentin prison transforms into rehabilitation center after Moratorium on Death Penalty
Halpert, M, 2024, BBC, San Quentin begins prison reform - but not for those on death row
What key data will you be using for your research?
There are many articles all about the transformation of San Quentin to the state’s first Rehabilitative Prison. This is drawing a lot of attention since San Quentin is California’s oldest prison and also the only Death Row in the state. There is also a lot of attention on where all the Death Row prisoners will be eventually moved to since they are not scheduled for release, unlike other prisoners who are planned to go through rehabilitation at San Quentin and eventually released.
How do you think this article will play a role in your final research?
This article is great because it involves not only San Quentin and the buildings and their rehabilitation, which is quite extensive, but it also talks about the inmates and their important lives. I know that not many people think that Death Row inmates are important, but, despite their mistakes in life, they are still human beings and need to be treated with respect and consideration. This article brings these important details to the front.
What are the 3 most important facts do you think this article covers?
First, it is important to recognize that rehabilitation of prisons is very important, and it is a great first move that California is taking this step towards improvement.
Second, it is a good idea to recognize that transferring these inmates from San Quentin to another facility could cause a lot of stress and confusion to both the inmates and the new prisons where the inmates will be transferred to.
Third, this article describes the upgrades and improvements that the building will be receiving to become a new facility offering new training and rehabilitation and improvements. There are descriptions by some inmates about the broken ceilings and rampant pests like rats and wild birds that get inside the buildings since the facility is actually jutting out into the San Francisco Bay and is exposed to all weather and creatures.
Third Article:
How has the Moratorium of the Death Penalty in California affected the prisons?
Kendrick, P. 2024, Corrections 1, California County Opposes the Transfer of San Quentin Death Row Inmates,
“In 2020, a year after Newsom placed a moratorium on the death penalty, the state began to transfer condemned inmates out of San Quentin. Over the next two years, California moved 104 people from San Quentin and the Central California Women’s Facility to other state prisons as part of a pilot program. The state announced in March it’s planning to build on that program and turn the infamous San Quentin prison into a Scandinavian-style prison focused on rehabilitation.”
This article shows the twist in what happens when a Death Row prison is closed for executions and changed to a different type of prison, despite decades as a Death Row prison. On the outside it seems like a great idea until it is shown what happens to all the prisoners who were already at San Quentin. They were all moved to other prisons, which then puts an increased burden on prisons who were already full. In addition, the prisons may need additional structural improvements to hold the increased load that it was not prepared for.
It is a great idea to remove the Death Penalty as an option for prisoners, and the state needs to make sure that the prisons in the rest of the state, including county and city jails, are funded properly to help them to support the increased population. This could include needing more staff and medical support
Fourth Article
How have the Corrections and Rehabilitation budgets changed in 20 Years to adjust to all these changes?
O’Neil, Caitlin, 2020, Legislative Analyst Office, State Correctional Spending Increased Despite Significant Population Reductions,
“Over the past decade, the state has taken various actions that have significantly reduced the number of inmates and parolees under the supervision of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Most notably, legislation was enacted in 2011 that shifted (or realigned) the responsibility for certain offenders from the state to counties. This was done to help the state comply with a federal court order to reduce prison overcrowding, as well as reduce state costs. Voters have also approved a series of ballot measures that have impacted the inmate population, such as reducing penalties for certain offenders convicted of nonserious and nonviolent property and drug crimes. Since the implementation of the these and other policy changes, the state’s inmate population declined by nearly one‑quarter and the parolee population declined by nearly one‑half. However, over the same period, CDCR spending increased by over $3 billion, or more than one‑third.”
I found this interesting because the article focused on the budget for the state, but in the article, it was made clear that many inmates were being shifted from the state to counties and their prisons. I think it would be interesting to find out if the budgets of the counties have increased to adjust to the changes in the state prisons.
I found this statistical information interesting, and it appears that the prisons are being forced to follow court orders to increase health care, beyond their choices.
“Improvements to Inmate Health Care Have Been Costly. In order to comply with court orders in the Plata and Coleman cases, the state substantially expanded inmate medical and mental health care services over the past several years. As a result, CDCR spending on inmate health care increased by about $1.4 billion (66 percent)—from about $2.2 billion in 2010‑11 to an estimated $3.6 billion in 2019‑20. Much of this increase is due to increased staffing. For example, the number of health care positions per inmate has nearly doubled—from 0.06 in 2010‑11 to 0.11 in 2018‑19 (the most recent complete data available). We note, however, that the number of non‑health care staff declined over the same time period.
Determining an evaluation of the project based on your expectations and those of the stakeholders.
Major changes in California's prison system—including declining inmate populations, revised sentencing laws, and new rehabilitative programs—have led to both increased opportunities and new challenges for inmates. While the state aims for better outcomes, inmates report concerns over increased violence and difficult housing transitions.
Shifts in housing and daily life
Inmates have been significantly impacted by the shift away from segregated housing and the closure of several prisons.
- Closure of facilities and declining population: The prison population has steadily declined in recent years, leading to the closure of several prisons, such as Chuckawalla Valley State Prison and the California City Correctional Facility. This has necessitated inmate transfers to different facilities and changes in the types of available programming.
- Controversial integrated housing: In an effort to promote rehabilitation, California has shifted away from segregated housing units, such as the Sensitive Needs Yards (SNYs), toward integrated Non-Designated Programming Facilities (NDPFs). Some inmates claim that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has forced their placement into these integrated yards, leading to an increase in inmate-on-inmate violence.
- Death row relocation: Inmates on death row at San Quentin have been relocated to general population units in other high-security prisons, in line with Proposition 66. The goal is to provide them with more rehabilitative opportunities, employment, and mental health services.
- In-person visitations restored: Following the COVID-19 pandemic, new regulations require prisons to provide at least three days of in-person visitation per week. Video calls are also available for additional access to family and friends.
Outline the process you will follow utilizing research, taking into consideration of your data for your research:
Did you utilize a spreadsheet or database?
I am a big fan of Excel, and I use it for a wide variety of uses. I can create spreadsheets with formulas and organize data in columns and rows. Excel can be used for both spreadsheets and databases.
What made you choose one over the other?
Excel can be used for a wide variety of uses, as stated above, and because it is a Microsoft application, it also fits easily into other applications like Word documents.
How do you plan on organizing the data to be reflected in your project?
I plan to use various articles and various sources to make sure I am getting various viewpoints, rather than just one or two. On the left side I can put the person or department they are from and then at the top I can put the year that this was stated since this topic covers over 20 years of information with all the changes to California’s prisons.
Outlining the process, you will follow utilizing your education, and life experiences you have obtained up to this point, resulting in a plan of action to implement your project
Since I have been a lifelong resident of California and always had an interest in Criminology and the systems that surround us here, specifically in the Bay Area, I have found these topics to be fascinating. I can see both Alcatraz Island and San Quentin prison from so many locations throughout the Bay Area. I have never been to Alcatraz as a tourist attraction since I am not a fan of being on boats and the water. I have known people who went to San Quentin to assist with AA meetings, but I have not been inside. I have heard it is massive, and the security is extremely tight.
In my pursuit of a BS in Criminology, one of my favorite subjects has been what happens inside of prisons and the entire life there. Since I was born in 1964, for the Death Penalty alone, the prisons here have gone from the electric chair to lethal injection and now to a full ban.
I am all for teaching people proper skills in prison to help them to adapt to their new life outside of prison if they are given that option. I am also open to understanding that some people, like Richard Allen Davis, a lifelong career criminal, belong inside a prison permanently to protect himself and the outside world. Children like Polly Klass in Petaluma, California, do not deserve to be stolen from their own bedrooms in the middle of the night, hidden in bushes, raped and killed by horrible people like Richard Allen Davis, who was out on parole after a life of crime starting as a child.
As a child growing up in San Francisco, I always wanted to be an Animal Services Officer. To learn all about the industry, I volunteered for many hours during high school after school and on the weekends and summer at San Francisco Animal Care and Control. As an adult out of high school and now working and going to community college part time, I would start to ride along with officers in their trucks and learn field work.
In August 1998, I earned my PC 832 Arrest Training from Santa Rosa Junior College. I started applying around the bay area for Animal Service Officer positions and eventually got a position at Fremont Police Department. That started a career of over 10 years in animal control in the Bay Area. Though the primary job of Animal Services is with animals, the secondary job is with people and enforcing the laws of the areas including city, county and state. I was thrilled to know that I was working to make animals safe and teaching people that breaking laws for animals is also important.
Plan for implementing your initiative and Evaluation plan
My plans include continuing to support our Governor Newsom in his support of the moratorium on the Death Penalty in California. When his second term ends next year in 2026, I will vote again for a Democratic governor who hopefully will uphold the moratorium on the Death Penalty.
I will also continue to support the transition of San Quentin to a rehabilitation center, no matter the cost. The buildings and name have so much history here in California that it deserves to stay open and be improved.
I also want to continue to support and uphold the feedback from prisoners about all the changes and to make sure they are safe and well cared for. This support extends to employees of prisons throughout the state and to make sure they are supported properly in all these changes.
Resources
No author given, 2025, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Vision, Mission, Values and Goals, https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/about-cdcr/vision-mission-values/
Halpert, M, 2024, BBC, San Quentin begins prison reform - but not for those on death row, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68558967
Kendrick, P. 2024, Corrections 1, California County Opposes the Transfer of San Quentin Death Row Inmates, https://www.corrections1.com/jail-management/calif-county-opposes-transfer-of-san-quentin-death-row-inmates
O’Neil, Caitlin, 2020, Legislative Analyst Office, State Correctional Spending Increased Despite Significant Population Reductions, https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4145#:~:text=44%20percent).-,Despite%20Population%20Reduction%2C%20CDCR%20Spending%20Increased,of%20more%20than%20one%20factor.
Zhu, Y., 2024, Beyond the Bars: A Transformative Prison Environment for Sociopathic Inmates, https://issuu.com/yuying.zhu/docs/final_thesis_book_yuying_zhu_issuu
Sawyer, K., 2023, Prison Journalism Project, Stories of Freedom and Denial as Three Strikes Turns 30 in California, https://prisonjournalismproject.org/2023/08/16/three-strikes-law-approaches-30th-anniversary/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20080253884&gbraid=0AAAAAo-SeB4OlcDSZy_BTD3kYb9HixCTN&gclid=Cj0KCQjwoP_FBhDFARIsANPG24NehnRgQUrNnDOd6BLLjkToBVlOQGnAVDhyHHQcwyj3e6tbMfs3PF0aApqtEALw_wcB
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