Atwood

Defendant Evelyn Margaret Atwood was a passenger in a car stopped by an El Dorado County Sheriff’s deputy. She consented to the search of her purse, and the deputy found a bindle containing approximately one-half gram of heroin.

Defendant pled no contest to transporting heroin (Health & Saf. Code, § 11352, subd. (a)) and was sentenced to three years’ probation on the conditions that she participate in counseling for drug treatment under Proposition 36, the statutory initiative which mandates probation without incarceration for specified drug offenses, and that she follow all orders of the probation department. (Pen. Code, §§ 1210, 1210.1.)

Two months later, defendant was charged with violating probation after she was discharged from her treatment program and failed to keep a scheduled appointment with her probation officer. Thereafter, defendant admitted violating probation. The court revoked probation, sentenced her to four years in prison, and ordered her to pay fees and penalty assessments, all without making a finding that defendant posed a danger to others.

On appeal, defendant argues the court erred in revoking probation because both probation violations were…