California Prop 47, Two Years Later
December 19, 2016 10:20 AM   Subscribe

Ventura County Star published a five-article series on the effects of California Proposition 47. Article 1: Former felons find new jobs and new hope after Prop 47: Proposition 47 reduced nearly 200,000 felonies to misdemeanors. Every downgraded conviction brings former felons closer to better jobs and better lives.
Vonya Quarles, who launched StartingOverInc in Corona, said many of the Prop 47 petitioners have abandoned their “I’ll-take-any-kind-of-job-we-can-get” attitude. Politicians may debate how much money Prop 47 has saved, and police might worry about a bump in property crime, but Quarles insists the biggest impact of Prop 47 is also the hardest to measure – new hope.

That’s a transformation that Quarles knows well. Decades ago, she racked up a string of convictions, including at least one for selling drugs. Quarles was paroled in 1990, then found a job at a refinery – her first legal, living wage – which she used to support three children while earning her bachelor’s degree. Today, Quarles is a licensed attorney who has overcome the curse of her conviction. Each month, she hosts a legal clinic designed to help others do the same.
Article 2: Drug busts drop as cops question if they're worth it
Caught between ineffective jail bookings and toothless citations, cops are increasingly doing neither.

“Police aren’t going to spend their scarce time on what they believe to be a fruitless activity,” said Jim Bueermann, a former Redlands police chief who leads The Police Foundation, a Washington, D.C. think tank. He likened the trend to his time as a narcotics investigator, when the gradual decriminalization of marijuana led cops to pour out bags of pot instead of bothering with a pointless arrest. “I bet there is a lot of methamphetamine being poured out on the streets of California now.”
Article 3: Nearly 200,000 felonies erased by Prop 47, but some former felons don't know
Despite the dramatic impact of erasing felonies, some former felons whose cases were retroactively resentenced will be slow to seize their newfound opportunities because they don’t know their conviction have changed. In at least a few California counties, felonies were downgraded in bulk without any involvement from the defendants.

In these counties, public defenders rushed to file as much Prop 47 paperwork as possible, deciding there was no time to track down former clients before petitioning to have them retroactively resentenced. The cases were initially racing against a three-year deadline, but the window to reduce felonies was extended to 2022 in September.
Article 4: Two years after Prop 47, addicts walk free with nowhere to go
Using the Prop 47 fund, the state will put $34 million into mental health treatment, substance abuse and diversion programs this fiscal year. The agency responsible for divvying up the money has spent 18 months working out a grant process, but they only began accepting bids for funding last month.

For now, treatment facilities are cash-strapped and scrambling. And even when the money finally arrives, expansion will not be easy.
Article 5: How we did it: The Prop 47 project
Journalists from four publications – The Desert Sun, Ventura County Star, Redding Record Searchlight and Salinas Californian – combined efforts to produce a four-part series on Prop 47, Freed But Forgotten.
...
The reporting team filed public records requests in almost all of California's 58 counties, interviewed district attorneys, public defenders, judges, criminologists and police officers from chiefs to beat cops. They combed through court records from the Redwoods to the border of Mexico. They hung out on Skid Row in Los Angeles. They visited drug treatment centers, prisons, courtrooms and police headquarters.
posted by cynical pinnacle (12 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Surprised to see the newspaper from my hometown of "Ventucky" producing something more forward-thinking than a harsh law-and-order crime and safety page. Well done.
posted by johngoren at 10:34 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


“I bet there is a lot of methamphetamine being poured out on the streets of California now.”

This... does not sound like a good idea to me.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:59 AM on December 19, 2016


This is a great development. Downgrading a felony to a misdemeanor means various punishing rules for felons don't apply to these people any more.

This may be a good first step towards another worthy goal: stop punishing felons after they have served their time. Vonya Quarles, mentioned in the first article, is a good example of how a former criminal can become a productive member of society if given a chance. More felons should be given the chance, or a life of continued crime is their only career opportunity.
posted by Triplanetary at 11:54 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


This... does not sound like a good idea to me.

This is why the sidewalk sparkles in SF.
posted by atoxyl at 12:09 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


“I bet there is a lot of methamphetamine being poured out on the streets of California now.”

This... does not sound like a good idea to me.


Guessing it's a turn of phrase for "we just take the stuff and send the on their way".

But yeah a buddy of mine is LAPD at Harbor Division, and this summer he told me that anything up to an ounce of meth is just not worth arresting. It takes 4 hours to book them, and since it's now a misdemeanor, bail would be $1000 or they would be released on their own recognizance.

So, instead they write them a ticket for the misdemeanor, take their drugs, and then go do something more productive.
posted by sideshow at 1:33 PM on December 19, 2016


While there are data and arguments on both sides, here in San Francisco there are many who argue that these changes have led to a significant increase in property crimes.
posted by twsf at 2:09 PM on December 19, 2016


Yup, anyone parking in San Francisco will eventually learn the "no objects" rule. You cannot leave anything in a car, no matter how slight its value, without risking a broken window.
posted by gngstrMNKY at 3:24 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yup, anyone parking in San Francisco will eventually learn the "no objects" rule. You cannot leave anything in a car, no matter how slight its value, without risking a broken window.

That's not unique to San Francisco or new since Prop 47.
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 5:03 PM on December 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


Property crime did increase in California the year after Prop 47 was passed. San Francisco saw a 25% increase in non-violent property crime. And over the same period, property crime rates decreased nationwide.

But it's not clear if this is due to prop 47. One paper notes: "If the reduction in local jail populations after Proposition 47 passed in November 2014 is responsible for the urban crime increase in early 2015, as some sources are arguing, then cities in counties with the largest reductions in jail populations in 2015 would show the biggest increases in crime. However, the data suggest this is not the case"
posted by pingu at 6:20 PM on December 19, 2016 [5 favorites]


We also had Prop 57 this year which expanded parole options for nonviolent felons. Related in that both were designed to alleviate prison overcrowding.

(Prop 57 passed by an even wider margin than prop 47 did)
posted by thefoxgod at 7:10 PM on December 19, 2016


That's not unique to San Francisco or new since Prop 47.

I was going to say it's not even new in SF but apparently there has been a significant increase in SF. On the other hand I'm not sure there's actually been as significant an increase in other parts of CA (or see what pingu said). And you know SF has become kind of infamous lately for juxtaposition of wealth and poverty - seems like an environment in which theft might be an attractive occupation.
posted by atoxyl at 9:57 PM on December 19, 2016


In San Joaquin County, digital records have identified 41,000 drug defendants who could be eligible. Kroger, the deputy public defender, keeps her desk covered in lists: Clients who might be eligible; clients with just one felony; people who’ve died recently, so she doesn’t mistakenly file on their behalf. Boxes of rap sheets are stacked at her feet, and another box waits for her at home. Slowly, she is working her way into the office basement, where case files are kept on card catalogs and microfilm dating back to 1968.

The work is tedious, but lopsided sentences inspire Kroger to keep going. In one case, a man had been branded a felon for stealing bales of hay. In another, just a pillow.

“I don’t care what your background is,” Kroger said. “You shouldn’t go to prison for a $2 pillow or 10 bales of hay.”


Much respect. May the Burnout Fairy pass over her and may she be well rewarded for her work in ways she finds meaningful (I'm guessing that since she's a PD, the "gobs of money" outcome is unfortunately unlikely).
posted by Lexica at 10:15 PM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


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