In November, California voters overwhelmingly passed “tough on crime measure” Proposition 36. But polling, campaign finance data and experts say that many people who voted for the ballot measure did so due to a misleading campaign.
Prop 36 imposes harsher sentences on low level crimes, like no bail for petty theft. While the new law calls for mandatory prison sentences if substance use or mental health treatment is not completed, the measure also slashes funding for those treatment programs.
But Prop 36 didn’t pass because Californians wanted to be “tough on crime” or that Californians actually believed that crime was up. The measure passed because of the amplified misinformation about crime in California. Californians voted “yes” due to a mass media blitz across the state by corporate retail giants like Walmart, Home Depot, Ace Parking, and prison lobbying groups who contributed a total of $15 million to political action committees that funded the pro-Prop 36 campaign, according to the state’s campaign finance portal.
The new law has already impacted hundreds of San Diegans. In a February Voice of San Diego interview, Sheriff Kelly Martinez said roughly 400 people have already been arrested because of Prop 36, putting even more strain on overcrowded and unsafe conditions in county jails that continue to have high numbers of in-custody deaths. CalMatters reports that about 30,000 cases per year (56 percent theft-related and 44 percent drug-related) will be filed as felonies rather than misdemeanors because of
Prop 36.
This impact will just get worse inside and outside of the county jail for those mandated to receive “treatment,” because the law outlined no clear path to receive it. According to a CalMatters report, “some counties are scrambling” to fulfill that promise for the “mass treatment” that Prop 36 promised, especially without any additional funding.
Vera Institute for Justice polling from 2024 shows that Californians prefer “serious about safety” messaging over “tough on crime” messaging. In a post-election CalMatters commentary, Director of Vera Institute’s California office Michelle Parris noted that when the Million Voters Project canvassers told over 200,000 California voters that Prop 36 would actually decrease funding for effective crime and homelessness prevention programs, more than two-thirds said they opposed the measure. “But that message wasn’t able to break through because of the scale of misleading information and the uneven playing field,” Parris wrote.
In 1995, the California Three Strikes Law was passed by voters to mandate 25 years to life for third-time offenders committing almost any crime, no matter how minor. It disproportionately increased incarceration rates for Black people, and was not a factor in the decrease of crime according to a 2022 report. So how did Californians get duped into voting Prop 36 – an even harsher Three Strikes mandate – into law?
“I believe it wasn’t defeated by Californians because of the media coverage on it and what some of our political leaders advertised it as,” said Mariah Jamison, the Senior Community Representative with County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe’s office. “They used fear tactics and targeted business owners. There was a lot of exploitation and misinformation.”
Director of Partnerships with Californians for Safety & Justice Saun Hough said the public perception on Prop 36 was “100 percent impacted” by misinformation.
“It was the over-coverage of crime stories – including outdated footage of smash-and-grab incidents from 5 years ago – [that] heightened fear among community members that contributed to the measure’s passage.”
— Saun Hough, Partnerships with Californians for Safety & Justice
Hough encouraged community members to continue telling our stories, finding ways to access accurate information, and getting the right people to register and turnout to vote.
Community organizers with Pillars of the Community and the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans in San Diego canvassed and mobilized voters locally. In areas like Encanto, where Pillars canvassed and phone banked with accurate information, voters rejected Prop 36.
However, in communities like San Pasqual and Escondido where there were few community organizers to inform and educate community members, you see overwhelming support for Prop 36.
“Mobilizing voters by providing clear and accessible information via social media or other media is crucial to combating misinformation,” Hough said. That even means combating misinformation that has the backing of millions of dollars by big corporate retail stores.
Using misinformation about rising crime rates is an old tactic that’s been used for decades by the media and others who use criminalization to oppress our communities. This goes back to slavery, Jim Crow days, and continues in our current mass incarceration era. This method has long been used to stoke white fears towards Black men, and continues to be used against Black, Brown, and poor people.
Community-based organizations and community members who canvassed against Prop 36 need to continue the fight against the tough-on-crime narrative despite the multimillion dollar media blitz by big corporate retail stores and law enforcement.
“We have to deliver the truth and deliver it consistently,” said Lex Steppling, Community Organizer with Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN). ”When you’re a kid, you hear a new word you never heard before [and then] you begin to hear the word all the time. That’s how the truth is. We put our strong message out there. It starts to make sense to everybody.”
While we may have lost a battle with Prop 36, there’s still work to be done. Prop 36 will result in even more Black, Brown and poor people entering the criminal legal system who need support.
“We have to stay working hand-in-hand with the legal advocacy organizations and legal support organizations to make sure folks just have the basic…legal support they need but on a bigger picture level,” said Steppling.
Community organizations have to continue fighting crime narratives that harm their community members and amplify the truth with our voices.
”Our fundamental and basic lessons is that we’re never supposed to stop messaging,” said Steppling. “They never stop messaging. Our messages are better than their message but what aren’t we doing? Part of it is, yeah, we don’t have the money they have. We never have the money they have, but we have the tools and we have the people.”