AB 2942: California’s Recall and Resentencing Law

AB 2942 is a California law, signed in September 2018 and effective January 1, 2019, that gave district attorneys the power to ask a sentencing court to recall and reduce a previously imposed prison sentence. Before this law, only the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Secretary and the Board of Parole Hearings could make that recommendation once the court’s own 120-day window closed. The provisions AB 2942 added to the Penal Code now sit in Section 1172.1, and later legislation strengthened them with a right to appointed counsel and a presumption that resentencing should be granted.¹

What AB 2942 Changed

Before 2019, a California court could recall a sentence on its own motion only within 120 days of the original commitment. After that, the incarcerated person had no way to prompt the court to look again unless the CDCR Secretary or the Board of Parole Hearings recommended it. Defense attorneys had no statutory hook through the prosecution.

AB 2942 added the district attorney of the sentencing county to the short list of officials who can recommend recall at any time. That mattered because DAs are locally elected and politically accountable in a way corrections officials are not. The framework has been refined since. AB 1540, in 2021, added the right to appointed counsel, a presumption favoring resentencing, and a requirement that a court explain any denial on the record.

Who Can Recommend Recall Now

Under current Penal Code Section 1172.1, these authorities can ask a court to recall a felony sentence at any point after commitment:

The CDCR Secretary, for anyone in state prison.
The Board of Parole Hearings.
The county correctional administrator, for people serving felony sentences in county jail under Penal Code Section 1170(h).
The district attorney of the county where the person was sentenced.
The Attorney General, if the case was originally prosecuted by the California Department of Justice.

The court also keeps its own authority to recall a sentence within 120 days of commitment, or at any time if the sentencing laws that applied at the original sentencing have since changed. Any judge with jurisdiction over the case can act, not just the original sentencing judge.¹

One thing to be clear about: an incarcerated person cannot file a recall petition themselves under this statute. The process runs entirely through the authorities above.

The Presumption in Favor of Resentencing

This is the part of the law that carries the most weight in practice. When the recommendation comes from the CDCR Secretary, the Board of Parole Hearings, a county correctional administrator, the district attorney, or the Attorney General, there is a statutory presumption that the court should grant the recall and resentencing. The court can overcome that presumption only by finding that the person currently poses an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety as defined in Penal Code Section 1170.18.¹

That standard is high. Under Section 1170.18, “unreasonable risk of danger to public safety” means an unreasonable risk that the person will commit a new “super strike” offense: murder, a sexually violent offense, or certain sex crimes against children. General worry about recidivism does not clear the bar. In most cases where a qualifying official recommends resentencing, the court is expected to grant it.

What the Court Weighs

Once a recommendation arrives, the statute directs the court to consider a broad set of postconviction factors, not just the facts of the original crime:

Disciplinary record and rehabilitation in custody, including programming and rule compliance.
Whether age, time served, or diminished physical condition have lowered the risk of reoffending.
Whether circumstances have changed such that continued incarceration no longer serves the interest of justice.
Whether the person’s constitutional rights were violated in the original proceedings, or whether other evidence undermines the integrity of the conviction or sentence.
Psychological, physical, or childhood trauma, including abuse, neglect, exploitation, sexual violence, or intimate partner violence, and whether those experiences contributed to the offense.
Whether the person was a youth at the time of the offense, as defined in Penal Code Section 1016.7.

The court is also directed to apply any changes in law that reduce sentences or expand judicial discretion, with the goal of reducing sentencing disparities.¹

How the Hearing Works

After the court receives a recommendation, it must notify the incarcerated person and set a status conference within 30 days. The court must appoint counsel for that conference and any hearing that follows.

If both sides agree on the outcome, the court can grant resentencing by stipulation without a full hearing. But it cannot deny resentencing, or reject a stipulation, without first holding a hearing where both sides can argue. The incarcerated person can appear remotely unless their attorney asks for physical presence. If the court denies the request, it has to state its reasons on the record.¹

Victims have a right to participate. A victim who wants to be heard must notify the prosecution within 15 days of learning that resentencing is being sought, and the court then has to provide an opportunity to speak consistent with the victim’s rights under Article I, Section 28 of the California Constitution. Victim input is weighed alongside the statutory factors and the presumption; it does not automatically block resentencing.

What the Court Can Order

If the court grants the recall, it resentences the person as if they had never been sentenced, with one firm limit: the new sentence cannot be longer than the original. Within that constraint, the court has two options:

Reduce the prison term directly, whether the original sentence came from a verdict or a plea.
With the person’s agreement, vacate the conviction and enter judgment on a lesser included or lesser related offense, then resentence on that reduced charge. This is allowed even if the lesser offense was never charged originally.

There is a safeguard for plea-bargained cases. If the court recalled the sentence on its own motion rather than on a DA’s recommendation, it cannot vacate the conviction and substitute a lesser offense without agreement from both the defendant and the district attorney.¹

How to Seek a Review If You Can’t File Yourself

Because the statute keeps the recall power in the hands of the recommending authorities, the real question for an incarcerated person or their family is how to get one of those authorities to act.

The most direct path opened by AB 2942 is the district attorney’s office in the county where the sentence was imposed. Some offices, particularly in larger counties, have set up conviction review or resentencing units. A written request to the DA explaining why the sentence deserves reconsideration, backed by evidence of rehabilitation and programming, is a reasonable starting point. Some offices have formal intake processes; others handle these requests informally.

Building a strong record inside prison also matters. CDCR runs its own screening for referrals, and one of its pathways looks for exceptional conduct: at least 10 continuous years in custody, no serious or violent rules violations in the last five years, and sustained participation in educational, vocational, and self-help programming. The department does not accept referral requests from incarcerated people or their families, but the underlying record is exactly what its screeners look at.²

Wardens, law enforcement agency heads, prosecutors, and judicial officers can also refer a case to CDCR for review. Consistent conduct and positive relationships with institutional staff can lead to an internal referral through that channel.

Federal Sentences Are Not Covered

AB 2942 and Penal Code Section 1172.1 apply only to California state felony sentences. Someone convicted and sentenced in federal court cannot use this process. Federal prisoners have a separate avenue under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c), which allows a court to reduce a sentence for “extraordinary and compelling reasons” after the person has asked the Bureau of Prisons to file a motion and either exhausted the administrative appeal or waited 30 days after the warden received the request. The federal standard is considerably harder to meet than California’s presumption in favor of resentencing.³

1
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1172.1
2
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Recall and Resentencing Referral
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3582 – Imposition of a Sentence of Imprisonment