Although California had an otherwise boring election year in 2014, Prop. 47 caught my attention. One of three propositions approved by CA voters this year, Prop 47 reclassifies many small "felonies" below $950 dollars in damages as misdemeanors. Prop 47 also works retroactively, roughly 10 thousand convicts are eligible to be released from prison. Although 10 thousand newly-freed convicts roaming the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco sounds daunting, these aren't exactly murderers, rapists, and burglars.
In a time when California's prisons are horribly overcrowded, Prop 47 provides much-needed relief. The voters were right. Trying to incarcerate every college student who uses recreational marijuana is like throwing ping-pong balls at a brick wall. Prop. 47 reduces sentences for people who really aren't a menace to society and frees up resources within the system to pursue the real, dangerous criminals.
1 comment:
True, although while this proposition would require misdemeanor instead of felony sentences for a number of "non-serious" crimes, two of these crimes are gun theft and possession of date rape drugs. These sound pretty serious to me. During the strict enforcement of the Three Strike Law, crime rates decreased in California and increased in surrounding states because criminals were forced out, which forced neighboring states to adopt the law. While overcrowding in prisons presents a problem, California has not built a new prison in the past twenty years, so the overcrowding could also be attributed to the state's inability to adapt and expand the prisons as necessary. While I agree that this proposition had good intentions, it also exemplifies initiatives that are sometimes poorly written, since it allows for some serious criminals to slip through the cracks.
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