California’s felony sentencing structure has become increasingly complex over the last forty years. Despite this complexity, this analysis also shows that changing just one section of the Penal Code — a default sentence that has not been adjusted since 1976 — would affect the sentence length of 71% of felony offenses in current law.
This work has been supported, in part, by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grants MRP-19-600774 and M21PR3278