The State - News from Feb. 11, 1987

The likelihood of a prison sentence for an adult convicted of a felony in California increased by 27% between 1975 and 1985, according to a report released jointly by the University of California, Berkeley, and the state attorney general’s office. The report, prepared as part of a continuing collaboration between the university and the attorney general’s Bureau of Criminal Statistics, said sentences calling for incarceration for adult wrongdoers increased from 68.6% of convictions in 1975 to 87.3% of convictions in 1985. Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp attributed the increase in prison sentencing to “stronger judicial and legislative support for tougher sentencing.”