On Tuesday, August 4, 2015, California’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla reversed a policy set by previous Secretary of State Debra Bowen that prevented 45,000 felons from exercising their right to vote. This decision affects individuals who have left prison and are now in county-run programs created by the 2011 Criminal Justice Realignment Act.

Prior to this decision only felons in prison or on parole weren’t allowed to vote. When realignment passed in 2011, to integrate low-level offenders back into society and alleviate prison overcrowding, Bowen added the new category of offenders to the can’t-vote list, concluding that the supervision created under realignment was “functionally equivalent to parole,” and there was no evidence lawmakers had intended to let more convicts vote. Bowen appealed a judge’s ruling last year in favor of the plaintiffs in the suit. In dropping that appeal, Padilla, who took office in January, said he wanted to ensure that lower-level felons who were sent under Governor Jerry Brown’s “realignment” program to county jail as a way to remedy state prison were able to exercise their right to vote.

Eligibility requirements to vote in the state of California are as follows:

• A citizen of the United States of America; A resident of California;
• At least 18 years of age or older on or before election day;
• Not in prison, on parole, serving a state prison sentence in county jail, serving a sentence for a felony pursuant to subdivision (h) of Penal Code   section 1170, or on post release community supervision; and
• Not found mentally incompetent by a court of law.

Under Penal Code section 1170 (h), low-level felons are sentenced to county jail and/or supervision by the county probation department instead of state prison. Because of the changes with realignment the eligibility requirement that focuses on a person’s criminal status now changes eligibility to the following:

• In county jail serving a misdemeanor sentence because a misdemeanor never affects the right to vote.
• In county jail because jail time is a condition of probation.
• On probation.
• Done with parole, mandatory supervision, or post release community supervision. Your right to vote is automatically restored when parole or supervision is done.

Ineligible to vote are those individuals that are:

• In state prison.
• In county jail serving a state prison sentence.
• In county jail serving a felony sentence under Penal Code section 1170 (h).
• On parole, mandatory supervision, or post release community supervision.

This move comes as California is rethinking and reworking some of its current criminal justice policies. “If we are serious about slowing the revolving door at our jails and our prisons and serious about reducing recidivism, we need to engage, not shun, former offenders,” Padilla said. “And voting is a key part of that engagement. It is part of a process of becoming vested, having a stake in the community.”

SB 165 (Monning) – Support 
Chapter No. 139, Statutes of 2015

SB 165, by Senator William Monning, a measure that will expand the existing authority of local law enforcement agencies and the California Department of Fish and Wildlilfe (CDFW) to increase civil penalties in cases where marijuana growers dump hazardous substances waste, unlawfully take game, remove plants and native vegetation, or destroy forested habitats on lands managed by the Department of Parks & Recreation, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the State Lands Commission, a regional park district, the United States Forest Service or the United States Bureau of Land Management. The money from these fines will support habitat reclamation of the grow sites, which according to the National Park Service, can cost more than $15,000 an acre.

In 2014 alone, the CDFW participated in close to 250 marijuana related missions in which 609,480 marijuana plants were eradicated and 15,839 pounds of processed marijuana was seized. This same year CDFW found over 135 dams or diversions in rivers and streams which equate to close to 5 million gallons of stolen water. These marijuana growing sites, which operate on a commercial scale, leave behind devastating impacts on the terrestrial and aquatic habitats they occupy. The need to increase the penalties for those who continue to destroy California’s natural habitat is mandatory.

This bill was signed into law August 7, 2015.