California Proposition 21, known also as Prop 21, was a proposition proposed and passed in 2000 that increased a variety of criminal penalties for crimes committed by youth and incorporated many youth offenders into the adult criminal justice system. Major provisions of the proposition, as summarized by

Attorney General of California The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the Government of California. The officer's duty is to ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" (Constitution of California, Article V, Section ...

are: *Increased punishment for

gang A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectivel ...

-related

felonies A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...

;

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

for gang-related

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

; indeterminate

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

s for home-invasion

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

carjacking Carjacking is a robbery in which the item taken over is a motor vehicle.Michael Cherbonneau, "Carjacking," in ''Encyclopedia of Social Problems'', Vol. 1 (SAGE, 2008: ed. Vincent N. Parrillo), pp. 110-11. In contrast to car theft, carjacking is ...

witness intimidation Witness tampering is the act of attempting to improperly influence, alter or prevent the testimony of witnesses within criminal or civil proceedings. Witness tampering and reprisals against witnesses in organized crime cases have been a difficult ...

and

drive-by shooting A drive-by shooting is a type of assault that usually involves the perpetrator(s) firing a weapon from within a motor vehicle and then fleeing. Drive-by shootings allow the perpetrator(s) to quickly strike their target and flee the scene before ...

s; and a new crime of recruiting for gang activities; and authorizes

wiretapping Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...

for gang activities. *Requires adult trial for juveniles 14 or older charged with murder or specified sex offenses. *Elimination of informal

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...

for juveniles committing felonies. *Required registration for gang related offenses. *Designation of additional crimes as violent and serious felonies, thereby making offenders subject to longer sentences. The proposition received considerable controversy and was subject to vigorous protests by youth and human rights groups. Judges also expressed concern that the law eliminated checks and balances inherent to juvenile fitness hearings, as it effectively placed the power to try juvenile offenders squarely in the hands of a district attorney. Nevertheless, Proposition 21 was eventually passed. Opponents included the

Californians for Justice The Californians may refer to: * ''The Californians'' (TV series), American NBC 1950s western * "The Californians" (''Dynasty''), episode of TV show, ''Dynasty'' * "The Californians" (''Saturday Night Live''), soap opera parody of lifestyles and ac ...

, the

Critical Resistance Critical Resistance is a U.S. based organization that works to build a mass movement to dismantle what it calls the prison-industrial complex (PIC). Critical Resistance's national office is in Oakland, California, with three additional chapters ...

Youth Force Coalition, and the

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights is a non-profit strategy and action center based in Oakland, California. The stated aim of the center is to work for justice, opportunity and peace in urban America. It is named for Ella Baker, a twentieth-c ...

. Prop 21 received the support of 62.1% (4,491,166) of the voters while 37.9% (2,742,148) voted against the proposition. Only the comparatively liberal counties of the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

voted by majority against the measure.

Results of vote

In February 2001, state

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

invalidated provisions of the law requiring 14- to 17-year-olds to be tried in the adult courts.Court Curbs New Youth Crime Law, Retrieved September 12, 2015
/ref>

References

External links

Treatment of Juvenile Offenders, ballotpedia.org
21 Initiatives in the United States Criminal penalty ballot measures in the United States {{statute-stub