Hindsight and the Failure of California's Uniform Determinative Sentencing Act

Abstract

This paper looks at the initial goals of the Uniform Determinate Sentencing Act as it was enacted in 1976. It analyzes those goals in comparison to the program that came before it, the Indeterminate Sentencing Law. It then looks at the situation as it is today, and attempts to decipher whether any of the goals set forth by the original drafters of the sentencing law were actually accomplished.