Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced that he and 27 elected District Attorneys across California have been granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) preventing the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR) from enacting an increase of credits for certain prison inmates.
The new CDCR emergency regulation would have increased credits from 50% to 66% for inmates who had previously been convicted of a serious and violent offense, and were then convicted separately of a new nonviolent crime. Under California law, nonviolent felonies include domestic violence, rape of an unconscious person, human trafficking, weapon possession, and assault with a deadly weapon.
In order to stop the enforcement of this newest early release emergency regulation, the 28 District Attorneys filed a request for a TRO on December 22, 2021. On December 29, 2021, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Raymond Cadei issued the TRO which takes effect immediately against CDCR and remains in place pending the hearing on the prosecutors’ request for a preliminary injunction.
“Accelerating these inmates’ release and letting them out earlier than expected endangers public safety and is yet another affront to our victims,” said Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko. “I am pleased with the judge’s decision and the statewide effort to block this regulation. Victims deserve certainty and closure in the sentences that are imposed, and are significantly re-victimized when state officials unexpectedly reduce a defendant’s length of confinement while incarcerated.”
