On September 16, 2013, Governor Brown signed Senate Bill 260, a measure that allows inmates whose crimes were committed as minors to appear before the Board of Parole Hearings to demonstrate their suitability for release after serving at least 15 years of their sentence. The law will affect more than 5,000 California inmates and directs the Board to give “great weight to the diminished culpability of juveniles” and to consider evidence of their maturity and rehabilitation in prison.
The Post-Conviction Justice Project was a co-sponsor of the bill along with Human Rights Watch, Youth Law Center, and Friends Committee on Legislation.
