The coming landslide win for Proposition 36 will be a triumph for truth over spin. The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board has long ed criminal justice reform. But in real time, we saw the obvious flaws of Proposition 47 — the November 2014 measure that Proposition 36 is meant to fix. It changed many “nonviolent” felonies into misdemeanors in a ham-handed way that incentivized certain crimes.
Eleven months later, The Washington Post dispatched a reporter to San Diego who wrote an unforgettable showing the incredulity of law enforcement over the new status quo: “instead of arresting criminals and removing them from the streets, their officers have been dealing with the same offenders again and again. Caught in possession of drugs? That usually means a misdemeanor citation under Prop 47, or essentially a ticket. Caught stealing something worth less than $950? That means a ticket, too. Caught using some of that $950 to buy more drugs? Another citation.”
Nothing has changed since then — unless you count the emergence of a cottage industry determined to depict Proposition 47 as good no matter what. So store clerks say they’ve stopped reporting thefts because there’s no point? It’s a blip. So store owners are spending heavily to lock up more goods than ever, including detergent? There’s no proof that’s necessary — the corporations in charge have an agenda.
But in recent months, this spin has hit comic lows. In 2015, the Legislature ed a law that sharply narrowed the definition of recidivism — the term for a past convict committing a new offense. Subsequently, without any other changes, the number of recidivists plunged.
So who or what gets the credit for this? Incredibly, some activists say it is actually a result of Proposition 47.
In opposing Proposition 36 — which limits the incentives to commit crime that are the worst elements of Proposition 47 — who repeated this lazy, manipulative fiction? The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board.
There is an obvious way to make the criminal justice system less likely to ruin the lives of salvageable people: end the extremely costly warehousing of prisoners over 40. The single most enduring finding of criminology is that crime is a young man’s game. That should matter much more than it does.
But in California, alas, reformers would rather pretend their agenda is working and chirp from the moralistic high ground than acknowledge they blew it with Proposition 47. Yes, yes, yes, of course, vote for Proposition 36. Then break out the detergent.
