California's rather controversial Prop 57 (early release from prison) uses the list of violent felonies outlined in § 667.5(c) of the California penal code, which excludes a number of felonies many feel are in fact violent. This is because it that list was never intended to be used as an exhaustive list or used for determining early release from prison, it was supposed to be a list of the most dire felonies used for calculating mandatory life imprisonment. Jerry Brown and his supporters changed that, and thus rape of an unconscious person and many other violent crimes still allowed perpetrators to serve only half of their sentences.

California Senate Bill 268 closed the classification gap by adding certain rapes of intoxicated or unconscious victims (especially when the defendant administered the intoxicating substance) to the list of “violent felonies” under § 667.5. It went into effect at the beginning of 2025.