Increase penalties for theft and drug trafficking
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What did voters decide?
What would it do?
Proposition 36 would reclassify some misdemeanor theft and drug crimes as felonies.
The measure would also create a new category of crime — a “treatment-mandated felony.” People who don’t contest the charges could complete drug treatment instead of going to prison, but if they don’t finish treatment, they still face up to three years in prison.
Why is it on the ballot?
Ten years ago, voters approved Proposition 47, which sought to reduce California’s prison overcrowding by making some theft and drug crimes into misdemeanors. Since then, prosecutors, police and big box retailers have blamed the law for an increase in property crimes and homelessness. Prop. 36 is their attempt to unwind Prop. 47.
During the pandemic, the rate of shoplifting and commercial burglaries skyrocketed, especially in Los Angeles, Alameda, San Mateo and Sacramento counties. Statewide, the Public Policy Institute of California found that reported shoplifting of merchandise worth up to $950 soared 28% over the past five years. That’s the highest observed level since 2000.
Combining shoplifting with commercial burglaries, the institute’s researchers found that total reported thefts were 18% higher than in 2019.
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For
$16.8M raised
Supporters pitch Prop. 36 as a way to combat homelessness, which is up by more than 50% since Prop. 47 passed. The reason, supporters say, is that drug dependence pushes people to the street, and increasing the penalties for drug possession is the only way to force people into treatment.
Supporters also say Prop. 36 is a good middle ground between California’s tough-on-crime days, which pushed prison capacity past its breaking point, and the last decade under Prop. 47, which they have say created “loopholes in state law that criminals exploit to avoid accountability for fentanyl trafficking and repeat retail theft.”
Supporters
- Walmart, Target, Home Depot
- California District Attorneys Association
- California Correctional Peace Officers Association
- California Republican Party
- Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
- California Chamber of Commerce
Media Endorsements
Against
$7.7M raised
Opponents say that no studies on criminal justice or homelessness support the idea that harsher punishment — or the threat of harsher punishment — prevents crime or gets people off the street.
Prop. 36 will expend hundreds of millions of dollars in court and prison costs, they say, without measurably reducing crime or poverty. In the meantime, schools, health care and other essential services will go wanting.
The measure’s opponents argue Prop. 36 would mark a return to the War on Drugs, which they said California voters rejected a decade ago with Prop. 47.
Opponents
- Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire
- Alliance for Safety and Justice
- ACLU of Northern California
- California Democratic Party
- League of Women Voters of California
- Council on American-Islamic Relations, California
Media Endorsements
Commentary
Funders
Polling Data
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