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California measure calls for sending fewer criminals to prison

October 6, 2014

prisonersCalifornia voters will decide in next month’s election whether to reclassify a host of felony crimes relating to drugs and theft as misdemeanors, thus reducing the amount of convicts sentenced to prison. [New York Times]

Proposition 47 calls for redefining the criminal code to categorize the use of drugs, including heroin and cocaine, as misdemeanors. Thefts, forgeries and other property crimes involving less than $950 would also become misdemeanors.

If a majority of voters approves the measure, current felons could undergo re-sentencing.

The proposal is expected to save the state government a few hundred million dollars per year. The savings would be earmarked for mental health and substance abuse treatment, counseling of potential school dropouts and victim services.

A September poll by the Public Policy Institute of California indicated that 62 percent of voters support the initiative.

But, most law enforcement officials, including the majority of California district attorneys and the police chiefs’ association, oppose the measure.

“Virtually all of law enforcement is opposed,” said San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman. “It’s virtually a get-out-of-jail free card for 10,000, many with violent histories.”


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Does sending less criminals to prison mean we should have more guns and ammo under the bed?


So, with heroin and cocaine, for the most part, the “criminal” still has to steal from others to supply their habit, and now all they have to do is make sure it is under $950.00 to be misdemeanors? Really?


Fellow Christians, our God has given us the following passage for our comfort if Proposition 47 passes, to wit: “If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him, but if the sun has risen on him, there shall be bloodguilt for him. He shall surely pay. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.”


The godly loop hole in the verse above is to never let the sun rise upon the criminal that broke into your house to obtain goods or money for their cocaine and/or heroin addiction. Since we’re a Christian Nation, I am sure the courts will agree with God pertaining to this issue, praise!


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i think we should incarcerate sheeple


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Based on your answer I assume you are not for this proposition which goes way beyond marijuana possession for personal use. Are CA prisons really filled with people only found guilty of possession of marijuana for personal use?


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If someone replies, please provide links with proof.


I know a lot of criminals are brought up on multiple charges, and often take a plea on one of the smaller crimes, like marijuana for sale or possession.


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My concern is that it is not only “criminals” in the broad sense that are charged this way but anyone and everyone the police want to hassle for whatever reason. We need less nit-picking laws and a limit to overlapping charges for a single criminal event. I am not convinced that bullying someone into a plea bargain by loading up unnecessary trivial charges is good for society. If someone has done something worth prosecuting, prosecute them for that charge or, if you can’t prove that one, another single charge that you can prove. Exaggeration, like lying, breeds distrust of the law enforcement system and that creates more conflict not less.


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someone gets busted for pot every thirty seven minutes pass the dutchie on the left hand side


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I think that the request was for figures about pot busts in this state, not nation-wide. I disagree with marijuana criminalization (for adults) but now it is primarily enforced as a means to get prosecutorial leverage on someone they want to bust for other reasons.


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Unfortunately this is where our society has gone. We have so many criminals that we cannot afford to house, feed and care for them all. This bill should have an attachment that says if you shoot one of these un-housed criminals stealing you should be exempt from prosecution. Keep your personal protection close because you are going to need it.


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“The proposal is expected to save the state government a few hundred million dollars per year.”


Wrong!


This proposal will cost the citizens a few hundred million dollars as these criminal apply their skills and victimize the countryside. The only winner is the liberal politicians that gain democrat voters and spend the savings on their pet project, i.e. illegal aliens.


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Amnesty for all prisoners!


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because we need more Democrat Voters!!!


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So, Webb should go free? How about Krebs? Manson?


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Politicians will take this $200 million plus and redirect it to some other brainless idea or create some more give aways. Commit the crime / due to the time!


The heroin and cocaine users have very expensive habits and the way to support it is to steal, rob, forge and repeat, repeat, repeat crime.


Jail their ass and contract with Mexico. to take them We have their poor they can have our criminals! Seems like a fair exchange to me.


DO NOT GIVE GOVERNMENT MORE FREE MONEY TO SPEND!


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Let’s buy millions of dollars of Ipads, loan them out to the newly released felons so they can use them to get jobs and educate themselves, then have them return them after a year or two. It worked real swell in the LA school district!!!


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Hmm. While i support this concept, the better deal would be to farm out the prisoners to other less expensive states, privatize the prison system to stop it from being a welfare system for the guards and the others (250,000 a year for the 150 dentists in the correctional system is absurd). Stay armed citizens……We can’t afford the cops and we can’t send the bad guys to jail.


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I have a better idea. Let’s rethink the whole “punishment is the best deterrent” mindset. As they exist today, prisons are a graduate school for criminals and offer limited value as a “deterrent” at best. There are people who need to be put away for a long time to protect the community but don’t expect them to be better when they get out. Short jail sentences can function as an adult version of a “time out” and may encourage someone to straighten out, but longer sentences do not add to that.


Give people doing minor crimes (especially first time offenders) an education/training option and the knowledge that repeat offenses will be punished more severely. Create an effective addiction treatment program on a large enough scale to offer quick treatment (rather than a two year wait) for those whose crimes are motivated by their addiction. Save the prison cells for those who can’t/won’t learn or who have problems that make them genuinely dangerous — not just an annoying nuisance.


As for privatized prisons, they are not only notorious for abusive treatment of prisoners but they have become a major lobbying force for stiffer laws so that they can profit more.


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California…you voted for it….you got it.

While the people with money and Jobs move to Texas.


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Or Idaho


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or Nevada……….Tesla


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Great idea,


Let the minor drug offenders out and make room for the criminal politicians who steal millions from the public on a daily basis.


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individual – What do you define as a minor drug offense? Should theft, forgery, and other property crimes of $950 or less be considered misdemeanors as this proposition proposes? As a thief do I walk into 7-Eleven and demand $949, but not a penny more? If I steal $949 twenty times in a month are these all misdemeanors? California really is losing good jobs and good workers to other states. What are we being left with?


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A person who is in prison who had marijuana for personal use only would seem a minor offense to me.


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there are people in Texas serving life sentences for cannabis.

God looks stoned


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prisons, let alone jails, should be reserved for criminals where there was a victim, e.g. murder, robbery, rape, theft, etc. not where there was a crime against the state e.g. drug offense, civil disobedience, infractions etc….


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