Last Friday, California governor Jerry Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 2888, which mandates a minimum three-year prison sentence for those convicted of rape. The bill was inspired by the case of former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner, who received a six-month sentence behind bars after sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
Brown and the state’s majority-Democratic legislature previously have sought to remove mandatory minimums in the state’s criminal justice system; they argue that one-size-fits-all sentencing leads to mass-incarceration and disproportionately targets minorities. But after Turner’s case, these same politicians have now signed into law more mandatory minimums as their best solution.
