Saying they want to decrease California's prison population, lawmakers kill bills to increase criminal penalties for fentanyl dealers.
The Legislature’s public safety committees have a record of sidelining bills that would lengthen prison sentences or create new crimes, because the Democrats who control them do not want California to incarcerate more people. But the severity of the fentanyl crisis has invited criticism of that commitment and forced a broader discussion over what role the criminal justice system should have in solving the problem.
The proposal could make it easier to secure a future conviction, because the warning could be used as evidence for prosecutors to prove that a defendant was aware of the risks in drug dealing. It was modeled after the state’s DUI Advisory, which is used to deter repeated drunk driving. Two other versions of the bill have failed to pass the committee in recent years.
State Sen. Steven Bradford said the proposal was reminiscent of the tough-on-crime era of the 1980s and ’90s that led to thousands of Black and brown people serving life sentences for drug offenses. Jones-Sawyer plans to hold an informal hearing this fall, when the Legislature is not in session, at which everyone who has a stake in solving the fentanyl crisis will have a seat at the table, he says. That means holding off until then on considering legislation like, which would have increased criminal penalties for those who sell, furnish, administer or give away fentanyl products that result in great bodily injury.
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