Older Californians 'Arrested For Felonies in Droves' Largely Due to Drugs
What's wrong with adults these days?
Tommy Chong: Gray-haired convict.
While young people are busy overachieving and pioneering the over-4 grade point average, people over 40 are "being arrested for felonies in droves" in California, largely the result of alleged drug abuse.
This according to the Daily News.
It states:
... The age of offenders arrested for felonies has been steadily rising. The number of people over age 40 going to prison has more than quadrupled over the last three decades, according to the study [Mike Males' "Striking Out: California's `Three Strikes and You're Out' Law Has Not Reduced Violent Crime"]. In 1980, about 24,200 felony arrests were made of the 40-plus age group, with that number growing to 110,700 in 2009.Meanwhile, the number of arrests of juveniles - a demographic that experiences the least strike sentencing - has been on the decline, from 97,000 to 58,600 in the same period.
The average age of a third-striker is 43 and an older population is increasingly being incarcerated, Males said.
Of course, as the study by Males, of the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, points out, California's three strikes law hasn't exactly been kind to the aging criminal.
Young offenders tend to commit more violent crimes, at least in L.A. County, according to the Daily News. Oldsters like the drugs, apparently.
That's retiring on a high note. Or not.
[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]
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