Decarceration in California: how legislation such as Proposition 47 has created a shift in the state's mass incarceration epidemic

My role in this research study was to collect statistical data from 2014 and 2018, which represent the years before and after Proposition 47 was implemented. This research project was conducted with fellow colleague, Ashley Victor. The purpose of this project was to conduct and review previous research regarding decarceration strategies, specifically in California, and what specific factors and political entities (i.e. the courts, the elected legislative, the executive, or the demos) are responsible for causing the decarceration phenomenon in California. In an effort to provide an equal representative sample of California, our data collection specially focused on ten counties within California, which was divided by five Northern and five Southern counties. My colleague and I focused on collecting specific data in an effort to best explain our hypothesis. We collected and compared numerical data for the years 2014 (pre proposition 47) and 2018 (post proposition 47), as well as Fiscal years 2013-2014 and 2017-2018, that looked at felony and misdemeanor arrest and conviction rates. The information gathered will assist Professor Blake Wilson on his future publication on decarceration in California.