AP16:088
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2016
CONTACT: Sam Mahood
(916) 653-6575
New Measure Eligible for California's November 2016 Ballot
Criminal Sentences. Juvenile Criminal Proceedings and Sentencing. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute.
SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Alex Padilla today announced that an initiative is eligible for the November 8, 2016, General Election ballot.
In order to become eligible for the ballot, the initiative needed 585,407 valid petition signatures, which is equal to eight percent of the total votes cast for governor in the November 2014 General Election.
An initiative can qualify via random sampling of petition signatures if the sampling projects a number of valid signatures greater than 110 percent of the required number. The initiative needed at least 643,948 projected valid signatures to qualify by random sampling, and it exceeded that threshold today.
On June 30, 2016, the Secretary of State will certify the initiative as qualified for the November 8, 2016 General Election ballot, unless the proponent withdraws the initiative prior to that date pursuant to Elections Code section 9604(b).
The Attorney General's official title and summary of the initiative is as follows:
CRIMINAL SENTENCES. JUVENILE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AND SENTENCING. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND STATUTE. Allows parole consideration for persons convicted of nonviolent felonies upon completion of full prison term for primary offense, as defined. Authorizes Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to award sentence credits for rehabilitation, good behavior, or educational achievements. Requires Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to adopt regulations to implement new parole and sentence credit provisions and certify they enhance public safety. Provides juvenile court judges shall make determination, upon prosecutor motion, whether juveniles age 14 and older should be prosecuted and sentenced as adults. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Net state savings that could range from the tens of millions of dollars to the low hundreds of millions of dollars annually primarily due to a reduction in the prison population from additional paroles granted and credits earned. Net county costs that could range from the millions to tens of millions of dollars annually, declining to a few million dollars after initial implementation of the measure. (15-0121.)
The proponents of this initiative are Margaret R. Prinzing and Harry A. Berezin. The proponents can be reached c/o James C. Harrison at (510) 346-6200.
For more information about how an initiative qualifies for the ballot in California, visit: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/how-qualify-initiative/.
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