Prosecutors in three Southern California counties have charged more than 13,000 people under Proposition 36, the tougher-on-crime law passed overwhelmingly a year ago this week, according to data collected by the Southern California News Group. The new law contributes to overcrowding in jails and increased caseloads across the state without providing the alternatives to incarceration that California voters expected, opponents say.

After being closed for months due to significant water damage, the second floor of the Shasta County Superior Court building in Redding is reopening on Monday. The second floor of the six-story courthouse, including criminal courtrooms, was closed in May for repairs. As a result, some courtroom services had been temporarily reassigned to alternate courtrooms.

(Subscription required) The trio's selection follows by just one week Newsom's naming of 12 other new superior court judges as the governor acts to fill roughly four dozen vacancies. His latest picks all have experience as lawyers in the criminal justice system.

(Subscription required) A California state appeals court has ruled that a man should be entitled to a resentencing hearing after he was unfairly sentenced using a firearm enhancement and that he is likely being made to serve longer in prison than necessary.