A year after Californians voted for a conservative shift in criminal justice policy, they began to see the results.
Proposition 36, approved by voters last year, gave prosecutors the ability to charge people convicted of various third-time drug offenses with a so-called treatment-mandated felony – a choice between behavioral health treatment or up to three years in jail or prison.
In the law’s first six months, 9,000 people were charged with a treatment-mandated felony and nearly 15% — or 1,290 people — elected treatment. Of the 771 people placed into treatment, 25 had completed it by the end of June…