What is Split Sentencing?

Since AB109, the measure to realign California’s overcrowded prisons by sending more felons to county jails, split sentencing has become a more attractive option for negotiating plea bargains. While split sentencing has not quite caught on in Los Angeles County as it has in other counties, it may gain popularity as the jails become more and more crowded over the next year. Currently, the majority of split sentences apply to felony sentencing, but it can equally apply to misdemeanors, too.

Split sentencing is an arrangement where a defendant is ordered to a specified county jail term and then a period of post-release mandatory supervision by the probation department. It is not available for certain crimes excluded from AB109’s list of crimes punishable by county jail under Penal Code

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