Proposition 47, the ballot initiative approved by a majority of Californians in 2014, was rightly hailed as a victory for the people. It turned a lot of low level, non-violent felonies into misdemeanors and redirected funds to treatment services. Charges that sent many away to prison for a substantial amount of time were transformed into no jail time. Now Proposition 36 is up for a vote in November to reverse much of Prop 47, disguised as a law to punish “retail theft” and fentanyl overdoses. I myself was in a California State Prison when Prop 47 was voted into law. Although I did not qualify for relief, it helped so many of my brothers, my friends, and some good guys get home to their families and start fresh.
Part of the push for Prop 47 came from the fact that California’s prison population was bursting at the seams. California alone has 33 adult prisons, not counting the private facilities, the conservation camps, and the state prison contracts in Arizona, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. The living conditions of the majority of these prisons was inhumane. I was at the California Training Facility in Soledad at that time and I suffered a spider bite on my lip that caused my face to look like the elephant man. Yet I received zero healthcare. I had to just wait for the poison to run its course.
Around that same time, a lawsuit was filed against the California Department of Corrections to force the state to lower the prison population so that people could have better health care and living conditions. Wallah! Prop 47 was written! It only applied to the lowest level offenders who’d been incarcerated for non-violent crimes and did not lead to an increase in violent crime, as opponents had warned. One study found that the recidivism rate for low level offenses dropped. At its core, however, Prop 47 gave a little relief to people serving time for what are in reality crimes of circumstance. Crimes with no victims.
Now fast forward 10 years. District attorneys are trying to turn back the clock so that these same low-lying offenses will once again become felonies and flood our prisons with bodies with Prop 36. Democrats, at the same time, are considering “compromise legislation” and waffling on the issue. In January, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said he supports “statewide action” to “amend” Prop 47 to stop criminal enterprises. In June, his office said he’s taking a wait-and-see approach before deciding to get personally involved in any campaign.
Financial backers of the 2024 ballot measure to undermine parts of Prop 47, including Walmart, Target and Home Depot, and their political allies have pointed to videos of mobs going into retail stores, 10 or 15 guys at a time, grabbing arms full of clothes and running out in a flash.
The fundamental problem with this example is that if you go into a mall with 10 guys grabbing as much clothes or jewelry as you can hold, you’re not eligible for a lighter punishment under Prop 47. It’s this type of propaganda that falsely leads the public into voting for something much different. But even if Prop 47 did apply in that case, it needs to be stressed that most of the people who commit retail crimes are doing it out of desperation. People steal laundry detergent because it’s kinda expensive. If Prop 36 is passed, it’ll only make life worse for the poorest Californians.
Let’s be honest. Most laws are created to take the Black man out of the home and to break up the family by sending the man to prison. The repeal of Prop 47, however, will also take the Black woman out of the equation. It will be detrimental to the very backbone of our entire community. Statistics show that women are just as likely to
shoplift as men.
I believe that this vote in November is one of our most dire ever. We can not sit back and let corporations take us back to where we once were. We cannot allow politicians to continue to lie to us, and keep our communities over-policed and under-funded. We must vote this November. We must fight back.
First they come for our men, now they’re coming for our women. When will it end?