Crime Spike Linked To Prop 36: According to an article from the Ventura County Star by Kathleen Wilson, arrests for drug and property crimes have increased since California voters adopted Proposition 36, eight years ago. The measure initiated a sweeping program to send nonviolent drug offenders into treatment instead of jail. A report issued earlier this week by researchers at UCLA shows that felony drug arrests between 2001 and 2005 increased by 30 percent and misdemeanor drug arrests by 23 percent after declining in the previous four years. Proposition 36 was sold to the voters as a more sensible way to treat first- and second-time drug offenders rather than putting them in jail. But many of the clients turned out to be people with 10 or more years of addiction to narcotics, not small-time marijuana users, drug researchers said.

Lawyer Says Jail Death Wasn't Suicide: AP Special Correspondent, Linda Deutsch, reports that Mark Geragos, lawyer for accused murderer Kazuyoshi Miura, believes that his client's jail cell death was not a suicide. Police say Miura hanged himself in his cell with a piece of his shirt, but a pathologist hired by Geragos to examine the body found deep tissue injuries on his back that indicated a beating. The pathologist concluded the injury could not have been caused by a self-inflicted hanging. "All of this is consistent with a murder," Geragos said. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office is investigating Miura's death. His body was found less than 24 hours after he was returned to the United States to stand trial for the murder of his wife 27 years ago. Previous posts of this case are here and here.