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 previous effort to recall Prop 47 in 2020 received less than 40 percent of the vote.
The ballot measure is a reaction to the perception of soaring retail theft. This woe among retailers is driven by exaggerated claims, unreliable data, and highly publicized incidents. Organized retail theft exists, but it is not the pervasive problem that retail executives have claimed it to be. Shoplifting isn’t actually on the rise nationally, but you wouldn’t know it by the tough talk from retail giants and politicians who benefit from false narratives about a “national crisis.”
By rolling back Prop 47, this ballot initiative would return California to its worst days of ineffective and expensive mass incarceration and a time when we had fewer tools to keep our communities safe. Prop 36 would reverse the state’s gains in reducing the dangerous, racially unequal, and unconstitutionally crowded prison population (since 2014, California’s prison population has dropped 28 percent with reduced racial disparities). Second, it would dry up funding for much-needed services, including employment assistance for those coming out of jail, victims’ services, and housing. Finally, it risks making California less safe, as programs funded by Prop 47 have reduced recidivism without increasing violent crime.
