Understanding Proposition 36
LARRP speaks at Rally to Defeat Prop 36
Prop 36: California’s 2024 Ballot Proposition to Recall Prop 47 Explained
Vera, Jun 21, 2024
What is Proposition 47, and how does it relate to the upcoming ballot proposition, Proposition 36?
In the early 2010s, California’s prison system was overfilled, dangerous, ineffective, and untenably expensive. The situation was so dire that the United States Supreme Court ordered California to take action. To comply with the U.S. Constitution, save money, and improve the prison system without compromising public safety, Californians passed Prop 47 with an overwhelming majority of the vote. Prop 47 reclassified six minor felony offenses to misdemeanors, including shoplifting and simple drug possession, and it funneled costs savings into safety measures like drug and mental health treatment, homelessness prevention, and victim services centers. These changes aligned with research concluding that addressing these offenses with jail or prison time is both expensive and ineffective.
A decade of research has concluded that Prop 47 accomplished its goals. Studies have concluded that it reduced recidivism, saved the state more than $800 million, and reduced both the prison population and its racial disparities. Multiple reports have shown that it did not increase violent crime (with disagreement on whether it had a modest effect on property crime). Much of its cost savings have gone towards programs that make the state safer, like mental health and drug treatment, diversion programs, housing, and victims’ services.
This year, special interest groups including large retail corporations like Walmart and Target as well as the California Correctional Peace Officers Association are funding Prop 36, a ballot initiative that once again seeks to roll back Prop 47. Although they describe Prop 36 as “The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act,” none of its provisions directly address homelessness, and it seeks to address substance use disorder and petty theft through longer sentences and enhanced punishments that evidence shows will only worsen these problems.
Prop. 36 explained in one minute by CalMatters
2024 News Articles about Prop 36 and the ballot measure to dismantle Prop 47
Column: Prop. 36 risks creating felons instead of curing addictions
LA Times, By Anita Chabria, Oct. 10, 2024
There are 25 days until the election and today we interrupt our coverage of the national chaos for a bit of California chaos.
By that, I mean Proposition 36 — which depending on whom you ask will provide treatment for addictions, not provide treatment for addictions, stop retail theft, crack down on drug dealers, return us to the “three strikes” era of locking up Black and brown people faster than toothpaste in a Target and maybe even cost taxpayers millions. Or not.
Investing in Care Has Kept Californians Safe and Out of Prison for 10 Years. Prop 36 Will Destroy That Progress.
Vera California by Sam McCann and Claire Simonich, Aug 22, 2024
Over the past decade, programs funded by Prop 47 have helped Californians thrive. But a new ballot measure would increase arrests and incarceration.
What exactly is Prop. 47? And how could California voters change it this year?
LA Times, By Anabel Sosa, Aug. 12, 2024
California voters face a decision about how the state should punish people who are repeatedly convicted of stealing, or of crimes involving the deadly drug fentanyl. Proposition 36 on the November ballot asks voters to change certain parts of Proposition 47, an initiative passed in 2014 that turned some nonviolent felonies into misdemeanors.
CalMatters Quiz on Prop 36
Where do you stand on this complicated issue?
Tinisch Hollins on the Rollback Attempt of Prop 47
Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 240: Davis Vanguard, June 24, 2024
A decade ago, California voters passed Prop. 47 which reduced the punishment of simple drug possession and petty theft to misdemeanors, while raising the felony threshold from $400 to $950 for petty theft.
From the start, the measure passed by the voters has garnered criticism from law enforcement and other tough-on-crime groups and has been blamed for the rise in fentanyl use as well as a rash of high-profile retail thefts and smash and grabs.
However, as Tinisch Hollins, executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice, the state’s leading public safety advocacy organization, told the Vanguard—this is a false narrative
Gov. Newsom, Legislative leaders consider putting new crime initiative on November ballot
KCRA, Ashley Zavala, Jun 22, 2024
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —Gov. Gavin Newsom and some Democratic lawmakers are now considering placing a crime-related measure on the November ballot to compete with an initiative that has already qualified meant to enhance penalties for drug traffickers and repeat thieves. Five sources close to the situation, but who are unauthorized to speak publicly about it, confirmed to KCRA 3 the new initiative is an effort to continue negotiating the measure that would reform parts of Proposition 47 off of the November ballot.
The scheme to break up the anti-Prop 47 coalition
Politico, California Playbook, By Emily Schultheis, Will Mccarthy, 06/10/2024
Prosecutors and retailers worked together to qualify an initiative rolling back parts of the decade-old criminal-justice reform known as Proposition 47. The big question this week: How long can rural sheriffs and the board of Walmart share a common vision for fighting crime?
Now Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic leaders are scheming to get the measure off the ballot by pulling the coalition partners in opposite directions. The Democratic-led Legislature is moving forward with a suite of bills addressing many of the retailers’ concerns, with a new crime category for serial theft and a crackdown on the resale of stolen goods.
Potential tough-on-crime ballot measure promises less homelessness. Experts aren’t convinced
CALMatters, By Marisa Kendall And Yue Stella Yu, May 20, 2024
The initiative proponents are calling the “Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act” would increase penalties for some drug and theft crimes, by rolling back Proposition 47 — the criminal justice changes California voters passed a decade ago. It also would force some people arrested three or more times for drug crimes into treatment. But where does homelessness factor into this tough-on-crime measure?
Proposition 47's Impact on California's Criminal Justice System
KQED by Marisa Lagos, Feb 14
For the last decade, most Democrats have staunchly defended one of the state’s biggest criminal justice reform measures: Proposition 47.
But in recent months, more and more state leaders are pushing some sort of overhaul of the 2014 ballot measure.
Safety and Justice Leader: Despite ‘Vested Interest,’ Naysayers Claims False – Prop 47, Other Criminal Justice Reforms Working, Saving Tax Dollars, Lives
Davis vanguard, by staff, January 09, 2024
SAN JOSE, CA – There’s been an “ongoing effort by those with a vested interest in protecting the old, failed approaches of our criminal justice system to spread disinformation about the impact reforms to that broken system have had,” but it’s false, said Tinisch Hollins, executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice, which co-authored Proposition 47 in 2014.
Explaining Proposition 47 (2014): The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act
A Cornerstone of CA Justice Reform
Proposition 47 is one of the cornerstones of modern criminal justice reform in California. Passed by California voters in 2014, Proposition 47, also known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, brought about progressive and meaningful changes in how the state sentences and incarcerates individuals for low-level property and drug-related crimes. Now there is a measure will appear on the ballot this November to dismantle Prop 47
The Impact of Proposition 47
Proposition 47 has proven to be transformative. Studies have consistently shown that by reducing petty and drug related non-violent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, and by reinvesting those dollars into prevention and reentry programs, Prop 47 is reducing recidivism rates, reuniting families and rebuilding neighborhoods. It also helped the state come into compliance with the US Supreme Court Order requiring California to reduce its illegally overcrowded and inhumane prison system.
WHAT WAS PROPOSITION 47
An Issue Brief by Californians for Safety and Justice
California voters passed Proposition 47, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, on November 4, 2014. This unprecedented criminal justice reform measure authorized changes in sentencing for low-level crimes and reallocated prison spending to support local public safety programs, trauma recovery services for crime survivors, and programs for vulnerable youth.1 Under the law, prison savings are calculated every year through the budget process, and reallocated to key types of local programs that support healing and keep communities safe. Proposition 47 also led narrowing racial disparities in key statewide criminal justice outcomes. Since Proposition 47 was enacted, California’s prison population is down 16.6 percent (from 136,038 people in October 2014,2 to 125,021 in September 2019), and the 2020-2021 budget estimates the prison population will fall to 123,716.3 During the same time period, as a significant number of people were shifted from state confinement to the custody of local governments, the number of people in California’s jails declined from an average daily population of 80,3104 in October 2014 to an average daily population of 72,806 in September 2019.
Editorial: Blame it on Prop 47: The latest chapter in an endless work of fiction about crime
By the LA Times Editorial Board
March 8, 2022
Three bills to roll back or outright repeal Proposition 47 come before a key Assembly committee Tuesday. We’ve been here before, and it’s getting old.
California lawmakers want to reverse Prop 47; ‘make crime illegal again’
FOX News, By Louis Casiano, February 16, 2022C
As crime continues to concern communities throughout California, Republican state leaders are making efforts to repeal a much-debated measure critics say has emboldened criminals and tied the hands of law enforcement.