Proposition 36, enacted by California voters in November 2024, created two new “wobbler” statutes (meaning the prosecutor has the discretion to charge the offense as a misdemeanor or as a felony):
- Penal Code § 666.1 (PC § 666.1), which makes petty theft or shoplifting a potential felony if the person has two or more prior theft-related convictions
- Health & Safety Code § 11395 (HSC § 11395), which makes possession of a “hard drug” (such as fentanyl, heroin, or methamphetamine) a potential felony for individuals with two or more prior drug convictions. Under HSC § 11395, defendants may be able to complete treatment in lieu of incarceration, with dismissal upon completion.
Prop 36 also amended other provisions of California law that could result in prison admissions or longer sentences, but this resource considers only the new offenses or enhancements created by the initiative as these are likely the most significant in driving prison admissions.
This analysis is generated by the California Policy Lab and Committee on Revision of the Penal Code. For questions or suggestions, please contact Tom Nosewicz, tnosewicz@clrc.ca.gov.
We plan to update this analysis on a monthly basis and will post earlier versions at the bottom of this page.
Unless otherwise specified, this data includes only people where the relevant offense was the controlling offense, meaning it was the most serious offense they were convicted of. Counts fewer than five are suppressed to prevent potential reidentification.
January 2026 Analysis
1. Admissions and overall population for Prop 36 offenses and enhancements
This section shows monthly prison admission and overall population counts for Prop 36 offenses
PC § 666.1 (petty theft with priors) and HSC § 11395 (treatment-mandated drug-possession felony) since January 2025. It also includes overall admission counts for Prop 36 enhancements PC § 12022.6 (property destruction) and PC § 12022.65 (acting in concert).
- There were 1,749 admissions to prison in January 2026. HSC § 11395 (drug) cases accounted for 2.2% of admissions and PC § 666.1 (theft) cases accounted for 3.5%.
- Since January 2025, there have been 27,929 admissions to prison. There have been 250 admissions for HSC § 11395 (drug) cases, which account for 0.9% of the total admissions. There have been 606 admissions for PC § 666.1 (theft) cases, which account for 2.2% of the total admissions.
- To see additional trends in CDCR admissions, please visit California Prison Population Dashboards.
As of January 2026, the current population in CDCR custody is 91,353. Of those, 209 people are incarcerated for HSC § 11395 (drug) cases, which accounts for 0.2% of the current population. 488 people are incarcerated for PC § 666.1 (theft) cases, which accounts for 0.5% of the current population.
Enhancements
Since January 2025, 54 people have been admitted to CDCR custody with PC § 12022.6 (property destruction) as part of their sentence, and fewer than five have been admitted with
PC § 12022.65 (acting in concert) as part of their sentence.
2. Treatment-Mandated Drug-Possession Felony (HSC § 11395)
This section focuses on admissions and sentencing for HSC § 11395 cases since January 2025, with sentencing outcomes broken down by second-striker status and race/ethnicity.
Admissions since January 2025
- 250 people were admitted to CDCR custody with HSC § 11395 (drug) as the controlling offense.
- 187 people were admitted with the HSC § 11395 (drug) as a subordinate offense.
- In January 2026, 39 people were admitted with HSC § 11395 (drug) as the controlling offense and an additional 23 people were admitted with the HSC § 11395 (drug) as a subordinate offense.
Sentence and demographic information
- The average sentence is 26.8 months. The median sentence is 24.0 months.
- 27.6% of admissions were sentenced as second-strikers.
- Second-strikers: The average sentence is 41.3 months. Median sentence is 32.4 months.
- Non-second strikers: The average sentence is 21.3 months. Median sentence is 15.6 months.
3. Petty Theft with Prior Offense (PC § 666.1)
This section focuses on admissions and sentencing for cases with PC § 666.1 as the controlling offense since January 2025, with sentencing outcomes broken down by second-striker status and race/ethnicity.
Admissions since January 2025
- 618 people were admitted to CDCR custody with PC § 666.1 as the controlling offense.
- 214 people were admitted with the PC§ 666.1 (theft) as a subordinate offense.
- In January 2026, 62 people were admitted with PC § 666.1 (theft) as the controlling offense and an additional 31 people were admitted with PC § 666.1 (theft) as a subordinate offense.
Sentence and demographic information
- The average sentence is 27.2 months. The median sentence is 24.0 months.
- 37.7% of those admitted were second strikers.
- Second-strikers: Average sentence is 35.9 months. Median sentence is 32.4 months.
- Non-second strikers: Average sentence is 22.0 months. Median sentence is 15.6 months.
Methodology
This document uses prison admissions data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, accessed through a data use agreement with the Committee on Revision of the Penal Code.
In most figures and tables, the admission is classified by its controlling offense, which is the most serious conviction offense, as defined in the CDCR terms file. A subordinate offense refers to admissions where a person is admitted for a more serious charge, but is also convicted of a Proposition 36 offense. We exclude admissions with the same admission date as their release date. For the analysis presented in Figure 2, a person is defined as being “in custody” for a given month if they were incarcerated on the last day of that month.
Counts fewer than five are suppressed in accordance with the data use agreement to prevent potential reidentification. For this reason, we only report admissions and sentence length for racial/ethnic categories with sufficient sample size. All analyses were conducted on the California Policy Lab’s secure server.
Earlier Analyses
Past monthly updates are available here: