Tell Corporations to Stop Funding Prison Expansion in California

California is facing an extremely serious threat to criminal justice reform. This prison tax and expansion proposal misleadingly named The Reducing Crime and Keeping California Safe Act, backed by law enforcement and the subject of an active signature-gathering operation in the field, represents a dangerous step backward for the state and a threat to future reform.

This measure is essentially a tax to expand prisons, an effort to increase law enforcement budgets and defund investment in intervention and prevention. Raleys, Costco, and Ralph’s have donated to the signature gathering effort and has indicated that they will donate more if the prison package were to qualify for the ballot this year.

Join us in sending a clear message to Safeway that we will boycott their stores if they do not (1) demand that their donations be returned ASAP, and (2) publicly oppose this prison expansion proposal!

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GET THE FACTS
New Ballot Measure Proposal Increases Prison Spending

What is the so-called “Reducing Crime and Keeping California Safe Act of 2018?” This proposed initiative for the November 2018 ballot would do four main things: make repeat thefts with a value of $250 or more prosecuted as a felony (which would be among the very lowest felony theft thresholds in the nation), authorize law enforcement to collect a person’s DNA upon arrest for misdemeanors, make it easier to incarcerate someone for a technical violation of parole or probation, and limit the number of people in prison that can earn a parole hearing by completing rehabilitative and educational programming. All of these will increase taxpayer spending on prisons, reduce rehabilitation and drive the prison population up – at a time when California has been working to right size it’s bloated prison population and rebalance public safety spending priorities.

The initiative is being pushed primarily by Sacramento Assemblyman Jim Cooper and Sacramento County District Attorney Anne-Marie Schubert, as well as key local and statewide law enforcement associations that have opposed justice reform for years, including the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County and the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. Proponents of the initiative need to secure over 365,000 valid signatures by June 1 in order to qualify the initiative for this November’s ballot and they are actively in the field collecting signatures.

Myths and Facts About the Proposed Initiative

MYTH: Recent criminal justice reforms have caused crime in California to skyrocket

FACT: Crime rates in California are currently at historically low levels. Statewide violent crime rates have declined by nearly 50 percent since 1992, and statewide property crime rates have decreased by nearly 42 percent, despite significant increases in California’s population during the past 25 years. More recent trends also reflect the fact that crime in California is continuing to go down. Between 2010, the first year before Public Safety Realignment was effectuated, and 2016, the last year for which complete data is available, statewide property crime rates decreased by three percent, with 34 of the state’s 58 counties seeing overall property crime declines during this period. Statewide violent crime rates are essentially flat during this time period. And during the first half of 2017, a majority of California cities with populations of 100,000 or more saw overall decreases in violent and property crime when compared to the first half of 2016.

MYTH: Law enforcement is now prevented from stopping low level crime.

FACT: Proposition 47 maintains California state laws that provide law enforcement authority to arrest and book into custody individuals suspected of committing misdemeanor offenses. California law also authorizes detention for individuals in misdemeanor cases, including Proposition 47 offenses, when officers have probable cause to believe a suspect has committed a crime and it is in the best interest of public safety to detain. The maximum penalty for misdemeanors in California law is one year in county jail. An individual that is convicted of multiple misdemeanors may be sentenced to multiple years in jail. Additionally, judges can sentence misdemeanants to treatment, supervised misdemeanor probation, and community service among other options. Importantly – even before California’s era of justice reform – the vast majority of low-level crime is not reported or prosecuted. Thus, arrest and prosecution strategies alone cannot effectively stop the cycle of low-level crime. Innovative approaches to bring community, businesses and law enforcement together can go further to prevent and detect low-level crime problems. Law enforcement can partner with local leaders to develop diversion programs and neighborhood problem solving strategies that address the drivers of crime.

MYTH: Violent and dangerous individuals are being automatically released back into the community en masse

FACT: There is no automatic release under Proposition 57. Rather, an individual who completes rehabilitative and educational programming can earn eligibility for a parole hearing, at which the parole board reviews the case and must still deem that person to be a low risk to reoffend before the person can be released. If a parole board determines that someone with a qualifying non-violent offense is at risk of committing additional crimes, that person will remain incarcerated. As of January 31, 2018, 80 percent of the parole hearings held under Prop. 57 have ended with release being denied. Investments in rehabilitation support public safety by addressing the root causes of criminal behavior and reducing a person’s likelihood of reoffending. Research shows that successfully completing rehabilitation programs significantly reduces the likelihood that an individual will reoffend upon release.