People v. SUPERIOR COURT (TURNER)

In the November 2000 General Election, the voters of California adopted Proposition 36, an initiative measure entitled “Drugs, Probation and Treatment Program.” Proposition 36, codified in Penal Code section 1210 et seq., provides that an individual convicted of a “nonviolent drug possession offense” (§ 1210.1, subd. (a)) shall be sentenced to probation and ordered to complete a court-supervised drug treatment program in lieu of incarceration. (Ibid.) The probation and drug treatment program is generally inapplicable to individuals who have suffered prior serious or violent felony convictions, “unless the nonviolent drug possession offense occurred after a period of five years in which the defendant remained free of . . . prison custody . . . .” (§ 1210.1, subd. (b)(1).) We conclude the five-year period referred to in the statute is the five-year period immediately preceding the current nonviolent drug possession offense, not any five-year period following the prior serious or violent felony conviction. In this case, defendant had been in prison within the five-year period immediately preceding the current offense. Nevertheless, the trial court found defendant eligible…