The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
(CDCR) recently published a re-notice of the Proposition 57
regulations. The public will be given a 15-day period to submit
comments on these revisions. The revised regulations are the
result of a previous public comment period.
The Office of Administrative Law (OAL) had approved emergency
regulations for Proposition 57 in April. CDCR received comments
from approximately 12,000 individuals earlier this year, and the
department has worked diligently to prepare responses to these
comments, which will be provided to OAL in a final statement of
reasons, per the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) process.
In the re-noticed regulations, credit-earning opportunities
continue to be awarded prospectively (except for the Educational
Merit Credits) to inmates for good behavior and successful
program participation and completion, since inmate participation
and documentation of programming was not uniform prior to
Proposition 57. In addition, Third-Strike inmates will not be
included in the nonviolent offender parole review process.
The Proposition 57 regulations include an increase in
credit-earning opportunities for inmate participation in
in-prison programs and activities, as well as parole
consideration for nonviolent offenders once they have served the
full term of their primary offense. The emergency regulations
approved in the spring have allowed CDCR to fully implement the
provisions of the proposition, including the expansion of the
Good Conduct Credits, which began on May 1, 2017; the nonviolent
offender parole review process on July 1, 2017; and the
credit-earning opportunities for Milestone Completion,
Rehabilitative Achievement, Educational Merit, and Extraordinary
Conduct, which went into effect on August 1, 2017.
The revised text of the regulations codifies Proposition 57 and
gives inmates a strong incentive to participate in and complete
rehabilitative programs. Proposition 57 does not apply to
condemned inmates and those serving
life-without-the-possibility-of-parole sentences. For more
information, please visit www.cdcr.ca.gov/proposition57.
