What is Prop. 57?

Prop. 57 was passed by California voters in November 2016. It has three main parts:

    Prosecutors can no longer direct file on minors (youth under age 18) in adult court—these cases now have to start in juvenile court for a transfer hearing where a judge uses specific factors to decide whether it would be appropriate/lawful to transfer the case to an adult criminal court;
    CDCR was required to create a new parole process for individuals serving sentences for nonviolent offenses; and
    CDCR was required to change its credit-earning system for people incarcerated in state prison, to reward efforts at rehabilitation.

The first part of Prop. 57 related to juveniles went into effect immediately, but does not apply retroactively to cases that were pending on appeal before Prop. 57 passed.[330] As of the publication date of this guidebook, CDCR’s draft rules for Parts 2 & 3 are currently in effect. The proposed final regulations are still pending.

  1. 330

    People v. Marquez (2017) 28 Cal.App.4th 1315. ↑