For over a decade, the pendulum in California’s criminal justice policy has swung from a tough-on-crime approach prioritizing incarceration toward an approach emphasizing non-carceral strategies.
In 2011, pending a U.S. Supreme Court order in response to dangerous prison overcrowding, California lawmakers approved Assembly Bill 109 to shift the handling of non-violent, non-serious and non-sexual offenders from state prisons to the county level.
In 2012, California voters approved, coincidentally, Proposition 36 to reform the state’s Three Strikes Law to require that the “third strike” triggering a life sentence be a serious or violent crime.
In 2014, Californians approved Proposition 47 to reduce the criminal status of drug possession and lower-level theft crimes from felonies to misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail. Savings from reduced incarceration under Prop. 47 were to be invested in crime prevention programs. To date, nearly $1 billion in such savings have been reinvested into effective crime prevention programs thanks to Prop. 47.
In 2016, Californians approved Proposition 57 to encourage prisoners to participate in rehabilitative and educational programming while incarcerated. That same year, Californians voted overwhelmingly to legalize marijuana through Proposition 64.
All along, law enforcement groups and Republican lawmakers opposed these reforms, arguing they were soft on crime and would unleash criminals to destroy our communities. Reported crimes remained at or near all-time lows throughout this period.
In 2020, California voters rejected Proposition 20, which sought to stiffen penalties for theft crimes and tighten up aspects of Prop. 57, among other changes.
Four years later, the mood has clearly shifted. In part that’s because crime trends have shifted. Homicides in the state spiked from a historic low in 2019 of 1,679 to 2,361 in 2021. Motor vehicle thefts spiked from a low of 140,732 in 2019 to a high of 195,853 in 2023. And while the reported jump in larceny thefts from 527,748 in 2020 to 560,414 in 2023 doesn’t seem like a lot, every Californian has seen their share of viral videos showing flash mobs brazenly stealing.
While reported larceny-thefts actually fell from 622,869 in 2019 to 560,414 in 2023, law-abiding Californians are resentful of seeing merchandise in stores locked up in response. In some CVS outlets, that includes toothpaste. Californians don’t see reported crime stats, they see what’s in front of them.
Critics of Prop. 47 and other criminal justice reforms have especially capitalized on all of this, often misleading the public into thinking Prop. 47 has anything to do with smash-and-grabs or organized retail theft (in fact, such crimes already entail felony offenses).
Democratic leaders have also certainly been anything but inspiring. Last year, we saw reform-minded lawmakers reject a bill to stiffen penalties for child sex traffickers, and then suddenly change their minds after their votes were exposed on social media. This year, we’ve seen the increasingly feckless Gov. Gavin Newsom and his Democratic colleagues in the Legislature try to play games with justice policy. The public has naturally come away convinced that the politicians in Sacramento are incapable of taking public safety seriously.
Perception matters, and it’s clear Californians perceive a growing crime problem and an inability of politicians to deal with that problem.
It is in this environment that voters are considering Proposition 36, backed by the law-and-order groups that opposed criminal justice reforms all along. Proponents of Prop. 36 say the measure would reduce homelessness, theft and addiction. Their proposal, in brief: threaten people arrested for drug possession with up to three years in state prison unless they plead guilty and successfully complete treatment, and impose longer sentences for people who repeatedly commit low-level theft and even longer sentences for drug dealers and organized thieves.
Ballot measures are all-or-nothing. You vote for the whole package.
Many of the provisions of this measure are sure to be popular or hard to vote against, including stiffer penalties for organized thieves or people who sell drugs that contribute to the death of someone. But a vote for the measure is also a vote for very antiquated ideas: packing our prisons with people for simple drug possession and dealing with homelessness by locking up those with drug problems or who commit low-level theft.
It is on these grounds that we oppose Proposition 36, which is dubbed “The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act.”
California can and should do a better job of addressing homelessness, theft crimes and drug addiction. Namely by making it much easier to build more housing, continuing to prosecute theft to the fullest extent of the law and making sure Californians can get help for drug addiction.
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Endorsements for the November 5, 2024 elections
Endorsement: Nathan Hochman for Los Angeles County District Attorney
Endorsement: No on Proposition 35. Let the Legislature figure out how to fund Medi-Cal.
Endorsement: Dan Chang for LAUSD board in District 3
Endorsement: Yes on Proposition 34 to check the abuses of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation
This measure instead brings the sledgehammer of the criminal justice system down on petty crimes. It promises forced drug treatment will work, despite a mixed-at-best empirical basis for such claims. It promises police and prosecutors will suddenly take seriously low-level theft crimes they have been failing to address (clearance rates for larceny-theft dropped from 15.8% in 2014 to 8.1% in 2023).
This measure might be a great job protection program for the California prison guards union, which is among those behind this measure, but it’s not good policymaking.
As this measure strikes at Prop. 47, that means those aforementioned programs which help prevent crime will lose funding. Is that really what Californians want?
We should be doubling down on crime prevention, not incarceration. We can fight crime and prosecute thieves, but we don’t need to revive the failed war on drugs to do it. Vote no on Prop. 36.
