A ballot measure that will increase penalties for theft and drug trafficking was overwhelmingly approved by California voters. It also creates a new category of crime, called a “treatment-mandated felony.”
Dan Dow, San Luis Obispo County’s District Attorney was an enthusiastic supporter and he spoke about what Proposition 36 will mean for the county, where voters approved it by a two-thirds margin.
Proposition 36 reverses criminal justice reforms that were approved by voters a decade ago as part of Proposition 47. Critics call Prop 36, “a return to failed policies of the past,” but backers say it will help the state address drug addiction, homelessness and retail theft.
SLO County District Attorney Dan Dow called it a much-needed fix.
“Prop 47 decriminalized a lot of conduct. And so… what used to be a felony now for 10 years has been a misdemeanor and because they've only been misdemeanors, they have not been reported by businesses. They've not been often treated seriously by law enforcement because it made it to where even if they went through and conducted the investigation and it led to an arrest, the sanction was so minimal that they were not even making arrests in referring cases to our office. So, this is why it was easy for the opponents of prop 36 to try to say, ‘oh, crime is not increasing,’” Dow said.
A new report from the non-partisan Public Policy Institute of California says Prop 47 did decrease prison rates, but it also found that retail crime is on the rise. Dow said California businesses have lost billions of dollars to retail theft in recent years, and he decried the emergence of so-called “smash-and-grab” robberies, where large groups ransack stores in coordinated assaults.
Proposition 36 means tougher penalties for those types of crimes. Dow said he takes no joy in seeing people incarcerated, but he hopes the measure will incentivize people who commit crimes to get the treatment they need.
“I really hope it does cause more people to be jailed because today without it there's no way to put them in jail. And so, the whole purpose and what the people of the State of California said is, ‘we're sick and tired of people going and stealing and involved in drug addiction. And there's no accountability and there's no treatment, they're not taking advantage of the treatment,’” Dow said.
Proposition 36 is due to go into effect January 1st.
