The California justice system is well known for extensive sentencing, with enhancements like the Three Strikes Law and 10-20-year-to-life gun enhancement, sending people to prison to serve decades on life sentences.
Less known is the so-called “one-year-to-life sentence,” reserved for people who served their time in prison and returned on a parole violation, only to find themselves trapped in what feels like a second life sentence.
San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, where I am incarcerated, has become home to more than 40 “lifer violators,” who keep returning to the parole board on one-year terms and are repeatedly denied.
Demetrius Mitchell is now into a seven-year violation due to a conviction for disturbing the peace; Philip Stamps a 5½-year violation for a misdemeanor vehicular mans