Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: can a judge go past giving someone more than 3 chances in prop 36?

Thank you for your posting, and the opportunity to advise you.

The answer to your question appears in Penal Code 1210.1, which is binding upon judges. PC 1210.1 states, in part (2):

(2) If at any point during the course of drug treatment the treatment provider notifies the probation department that the defendant is unamenable to the drug treatment provided and all other forms of drug treatment, the probation department may move to revoke probation. At the revocation hearing, unless the defendant proves by a preponderance of the evidence that there is a drug treatment program to which he is amenable, the court may revoke probation.

As you can see, even if many judges have a policy of giving "three chances", there's nothing in the law that says they can't give more than that, but everything depends on the probation recommendation, which the judge may rely upon. More than three chances might make someone "not amenable to drug treatment", which may cause revocation of probation.

If you have any additional questions regarding the Proposition 36 process, or would like more information, feel free to email me, anytime, at [email protected] -- it's my pleasure to help out in any way that I can.