Short Reports

Visitation in prisons and jails should be protected as a right for incarcerated people’s families and not dispensed as an earned privilege for the incarcerated individuals. Drawing on ethnographic research with incarcerated people and their families in California, this brief shows how routinely revoking or restricting visits (as punishment, as a consequence of solitary confinement, or at administrative discretion) inflicts real psychological and social harm and erodes the very family bonds that support rehabilitation and reentry.

Proposition 36 promised California voters a balanced approach—enhanced penalties paired with mandated treatment programs. In practice, it delivered only the penalties. The treatment infrastructure was never funded, leaving counties to improvise with nonexistent resources. New polling from UC Berkeley’s Criminal Law & Justice Center shows voters see the gap clearly and are not satisfied with what they received.

Resentencing policies enable the reduction of prison sentences and of California’s prison population by directing courts to consider changes in the law to determine new sentences. California’s resentencing policies are wide-ranging, affecting individuals serving sentences for both low-level, non-violent offenses and violent felony convictions with lengthy terms. As a result, resentencing has gained public support and political traction. 

Between October 2020 and January 2025, prosecutor-initiated resentencing in Alameda County resulted in 165 individuals receiving reduced sentences, generating substantial cost savings to the State of California while promoting public safety. 

Proposition 36 seeks to reduce homelessness and addiction. It creates new treatment and rehabilitation options and emphasizes using discretion to achieve its goals.