Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jul 2015
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Tami Abdollah, The Associated Press

L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF: NEW LAW PLAYS 'SIGNIFICANT' ROLE IN CRIME RISE

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A recent change in California law making certain 
drug and property crimes misdemeanors instead of felonies played "a 
significant role" in the rising crime rate in Los Angeles County and 
has taken away the incentive for addicts to seek treatment, Sheriff 
Jim McDonnell said Thursday.

Many in law enforcement have criticized Proposition 47, which voters 
passed in November. To ease overcrowding in the prison system, it 
reduced the penalties for shoplifting, forgery, fraud, petty theft 
and possession of small amounts of drugs  including cocaine, heroin 
and methamphetamines.

So far this year the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reports 
a 3.39 percent increase in violent crime and a 6.9 percent increase 
in property crime.

"We had 10 years of crime reductions, we were at 50-year lows in many 
areas on crime statistics, and all of a sudden, right after November 
when 47 kicked in, that changed and fairly dramatically, very 
quickly," he said. "It would be naive to say that 47 didn't play a 
major role in that."

McDonnell said the law prevents authorities from leveraging the 
threat of a felony charge to get addicts into treatment. As a result, 
county treatment rolls are down 60 percent.

"People are no longer incarcerated, they're not in treatment, they're 
out re offending on the street," McDonnell said.

Prop. 47 came after California's 2011 prison realignment law, which 
pushed many criminals into county jails to decrease state prison 
populations. Jails previously housing only people awaiting trial or 
those sentenced to less than a year now also hold more hardened 
criminals serving longer terms. McDonnell said one county inmate has 
a 42-year sentence.

"That's not something we're equipped to deal with effectively," 
McDonnell said. "The state prison system has been sued and had 
consent decrees over it, and it's predictable that as a result, we're 
going to have the same kind of lawsuits and the same kind of damages."

One of the goals of Prop. 47 was to use savings from reduced jail 
populations to fund drug treatment programs as an alternative to 
incarceration. But there's been no savings in Los Angeles County  the 
jails are filled with about 18,000 inmates.

Before Prop. 47, the jails were overcrowded and inmates served just 
10 to 15 percent of their sentences. Now they're serving 90 percent 
of the sentences, McDonnell said, but there's no money for the 
treatment services.

McDonnell also said DNA databases are less robust because those 
charged with Prop. 47 crimes aren't required to provide DNA samples.
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