Pubdate: Mon, 10 Nov 2014
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248

WITH PROP. 47, VOTERS SEND A CLEAR MESSAGE

Lawmakers Have Failed to Keep Up With Evolving Public Attitudes 
Toward Crime and Punishment.

In adopting Proposition 47 on Tuesday by a huge margin, Californians 
made a statement about the tough-on-crime policies of the last 
generation that increased prison costs and populations many times 
over while too often accelerating, rather than reversing, the descent 
of offenders and often whole communities into cycles of crime and 
victimization, incarceration and recidivism. Voters made a statement 
as well about the degree to which drug use and possession had 
resulted in unnecessarily long prison terms. They called for a new approach.

Deeper consensus about the statements inherent in the passage of 
Proposition 47 will probably prove elusive. That's the problem with 
legislating by initiative - voters tend to make their choices based 
on the general policy or philosophical thrust of each ballot measure 
without delving into statutory details and without necessarily 
embracing or even grasping the wider political agendas of those who 
write the measures.

Given the choice, it would have been better for the changes wrought 
by Proposition 47 - reducing simple possession of drugs from felonies 
to misdemeanors, and doing the same with low-level property crimes - 
to have been adopted by the Legislature.

But lawmakers have failed to keep up with evolving public attitudes 
toward crime and punishment and have legislated instead as if voters 
were in the same fearful, punishing mood as when they passed 
three-strikes and other harsh initiatives. Tuesday's vote, with any 
luck, will underscore the public hunger for change and move lawmakers 
who take office Dec. 1 and those already on the job to work toward a 
better, more balanced criminal justice system.

Lawmakers could begin by designing and establishing a sentencing 
commission. Such a step could at long last provide a buffer between 
the emotional urgency of high-profile crimes and the knee-jerk 
legislative response of ever-longer sentences. A commission that 
carefully weighs sentences against evidence of their effectiveness in 
reducing crime and recidivism could help stop the state from swinging 
back and forth, every 30 years or so, between punishment that is too 
tough and costly and punishment that is too lenient and dangerous.

Sacramento should also reject additional prison spending. 
Californians want and deserve to be protected from crime, but prisons 
that are too packed to offer the services that encourage inmates to 
recognize their mistakes or give them opportunities to change, and 
laws that make it harder rather than easier for former offenders to 
reenter society safely and productively, are not the answer. 
Lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown should focus on rehabilitation, 
reentry programs and alternatives to incarceration now - even before 
the additional funding from Proposition 47 for such programs kicks in 
a year from now.

Police and prosecutors, many of whom opposed the ballot measure, have 
it within their power to undermine it even after its overwhelming 
passage. Prosecutors could choose to reject the spirit of the measure 
and "charge up" - for example, to seek felony charges for possession 
for sale of a controlled substance in a case they might have charged 
last month as simple possession.

They could - but they should not. Their challenge is to implement the 
will of the voters in changing their stance toward drug users and 
petty criminals rather than looking for excuses not to.

In counties, the need for effective treatment and reentry programs 
will become even greater, and it's worth noting that Los Angeles 
County, among others, has not moved as swiftly as it should have in 
finding and funding such programs since the need was stepped up by AB 
109 realignment three years ago. With Proposition 47 in effect, and 
with more offenders who formerly would have been headed to prison or 
jail as felons now headed toward shorter jail stints followed by 
rehabilitation and education programs or just to the programs, 
counties will have to improve their game.

When realignment was adopted, a host of public officials charged with 
putting it into effect - police, prosecutors, county supervisors and 
others - spent too much time and energy resisting, passing along 
falsehoods about crime spikes and warning of disaster. Let's hope 
they take a more constructive approach to implementing Proposition 47.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom