In 2014, Californians made clear they didn’t believe drug possession or low-level theft crimes warranted felony status by passing Proposition 47.
As of this writing, Prop. 47 has saved over half a billion dollars in reduced incarceration costs which have been freed up for reinvestment in crime prevention and trauma services. It has reduced racial disparities in arrests and bookings. And it has allowed many Californians to free themselves of the burden of a felony record.
Despite all of this, police union-backed politicians, tough-on-crime prosecutors and Republican lawmakers have sought to attribute any and every problem on Proposition 47.
As I wrote five years ago in a piece evaluating the evidence that Prop. 47 has contributed to crime increases, “Instead of condemning people to being warehoused in prisons and jails for excessive periods of time, reforms like Prop 47 have moved us in the right direction, without compromising safety.”
And yet, this week, Republican Assemblyman Juan Alanis of Modesto is touting the same old nonsense as his Prop.47-smearing-predecessors Kevin Kiley and Rudy Salas.
“Public Safety is clearly broken in California,” said Assemblymember Juan Alanis in a statement introducing legislation to repeal Proposition 47. “Prop 47 is a failed experiment which has only catered to criminals in our state. Fentanyl plagues our communities, schools and society. We must attack our state’s crime problem at its source.”
Well, OK.
Is Proposition 47 a failed experiment which only caters to criminals?
Voters clearly don’t agree. After passage of Prop. 47 in 2014, they were presented with a ballot measure in 2020, Proposition 20, which purported to fix the worst parts of recent criminal justice reforms. Guess what? Voters killed it 61.72% to 38.28%.
In 2022, Republican attorney general candidate Nathan Hochman ran on a campaign saying all the things Prop. 47 opponents say. Guess what? He barely got over 42% of the vote.
Fentanyl certainly is a problem — so I’m sure Alanis will support Sen. Scott Wiener’s efforts on overdose prevention programs. I’m sure.
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“We must attack our state’s crime problem at its source,” he says.
OK, so what is the source? Is the source Proposition 47? That’s when crime began?
This kind of magical thinking is only possible from a career cop-turned-politician who was elected with prison guard union and police union money. Oh, wait, yeah, that’s Juan Alanis.
But no, he surely knows from his police career that crime has multiple factors and that among those factors are drug addiction and mental health problems. If only there was an initiative that directed money to help address those problems. Oh wait, that’s called Proposition 47.
Whoops.
Look, you know and I know California Republicans in the California Legislature can’t get even a word in up in Sacramento. Alanis’ bill is just for show, just for appearances sake. It doesn’t matter.
But just a bit of advice to California Republican politicians: If you’re trying to stay irrelevant, keep introducing bills to repeal Proposition 47.
Sal Rodriguez can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com