It’s time to reform sentencing enhancements Peter Espinoza and One of the basic tenets of our criminal justice system is that punishment is supposed to be proportionate to the crime. But in the wave of “tough on crime laws” passed in the 1990s, California turned that longtime legal standard on its head, instead adopting many sentencing enhancements, which add years to a person’s prison term, often doubling it. California’s Penal Code is now weighed down by more than 150 separate sentence enhancements, ranging from add-ons for possible gang association, having a prior conviction or being on probation. Such enhancements are now routinely applied in nearly every criminal case in the state.