Here\u2019s an unfortunate but realistic prediction: Six months from now, a year at most, Californians will look at a troubling new wave of crime and ask, \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what happened: Last week\u2019s voter approval of Proposition 47 on top of Gov. Jerry Brown\u2019s prison-realignment program approved by the Legislature in 2011.\u00a0\u00a0 Together, these two public policies will be responsible for the early release of thousands of criminals now behind prison bars, including some serving life sentences under the state\u2019s three-strikes law.<\/p>\n
Thousands more who commit new crimes, and who would have faced prison or jail time before Proposition 47, will now continue to walk the streets.\u00a0 Many of these people will be drug offenders.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors who previously could hold the threat of incarceration over the head of drug abusers as a tool to force them into treatment will no longer have that tool available.\u00a0 Many more drug abusers who want to get into already crowded treatment programs will find it even more difficult to find a program that can take them.<\/p>\n
Proposition 47 was the well-intentioned idea of former San Diego Police Chief Bill Lansdowne and San Francisco District Attorney George Gasc\u00f3n.\u00a0 Their argument was that criminals convicted of certain nonviolent offenses, particularly drug crimes, belong in treatment programs, not prison.<\/p>\n
To achieve that, Prop. 47 reduced six categories of nonviolent crimes from a felony to a misdemeanor.\u00a0\u00a0 It provides that criminals now in prison for such crimes can petition for immediate release.<\/p>\n
And it says that savings stemming from the reduced state prison population, an estimated $100 million to $200 million a year, must be divvied up among mental health and drug abuse programs, school truancy and dropout programs and the state crime victims compensation fund.<\/p>\n
Sadly, there are many ways that the specifics of the initiative fail its good intentions.\u00a0 Of perhaps most concern is the provision that automatically recategorizes the theft of a gun worth less than $950 from a felony to a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n
As current San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman says, nearly all handguns retail for less than $950.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t steal guns so they can add to their gun collection,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cThey steal guns to commit another crime.\u201d\u00a0 The simple possession of date-rape drugs, previously a felony, is now a misdemeanor, potentially undermining laws combating sexual violence.<\/p>\n
The money earmarked for mental health and drug treatment programs will not materialize for probably a year and, when it does show up, it will be a relative pittance for a state the size of California.<\/p>\n
Besides, Prop. 47 does not mandate that drug abusers even seek treatment. Addicts who cannot get or do not want treatment tend to commit more crimes to get money to buy more drugs.<\/p>\n
Police and prosecutors throughout the state are said to be busily trying to figure out how to deal with Prop. 47.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wish them luck.<\/p>\n
Source: http:\/\/www.utsandiego.com\/news\/2014\/nov\/10\/proposition-47-crime-california-drugs\/\u00a0\u00a0 10th November 2014<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s an unfortunate but realistic prediction: Six months from now, a year at most, Californians will look at a troubling new wave of crime and ask, \u201cWhat happened?\u201d Here\u2019s what happened: Last week\u2019s voter approval of Proposition 47 on top of Gov. Jerry Brown\u2019s prison-realignment program approved by the Legislature in 2011.\u00a0\u00a0 Together, these two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-drug-legalisation-efforts","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}