The Daily Delegate

Chase Beal
Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Delegate

The Daily Bill is a deep-dive look at one delegation bill that I found tackled an issue that I didn’t expect delegates would address. Today’s bill is from the Desert Family YMCA Delegation. 

The act wants to “add section 5010(d) to the California penal code to allow the implementation of organized boxing within the prison system.” Specifically, it proposes to “give inmates a program to devote time to channel their emotions in a beneficial way for themselves, as well as society after they get out of the prison system.” According to the Bill File, “[the program] helps with mental health, physical health and reformation of inmates.” 

I interviewed State Senator Katie Caniare, a delegate from Desert Family YMCA, who sponsored this bill in the Senate. 

“A boxing program in prison could help the inmates with a variety of mental health issues such as [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] (PTSD), anxiety and depression,” Caniare said, noting it would also help inmates develop restraint.

Through a study conducted by the National Library of Medicine, boxing was proven to aid in self-control and lessening depression-like symptoms. This proposed program could in theory reduce violent crimes within prison, as well.

An unfortunate statistic is that 44.6% of inmates reoffend in fiscal year 2017-2018 in California, which is the most current recidivism data available. Boxing is a healthy hobby inmates could take with them outside of prison to hopefully reduce that figure. 

Ultimately, this bill did not pass due to one main reason: the risk of criminals using their boxing abilities on innocent civilians. Senator Caniare refuted this argument by saying the rules and restraints that prisoners would learn from boxing would stop this from happening.

I believe this bill should have been amended to include any non-violent sport. It would hopefully have the same benefits as boxing while also not predisposing them to violence.

I hope you found today’s edition of the Daily Bill interesting. Another edition will be published Sunday afternoon. Have a great day, dear delegate!