California Proposition 36 passes: Here's how it will impact the community

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 36 on Tuesday.

The law will reclassify some misdemeanor theft and drug crimes as felonies, creating a new category of crime called 'treatment-mandated felony.'

Those who are charged and convicted could go into treatment instead of prison.

"We will be able to, after the third time that they are caught with drugs after two convictions, file a felony and mandate them to drug treatment which will help them, their families and the community tremendously," Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp explained.

The new law rolls back Proposition 47, which was passed in 2014.

It's been widely blamed for increased retail thefts across the state, like a smash-and-grab robbery at DripOnDrip in North Fresno last year.

Smittcamp says Prop 36 aims to deter those types of crimes.

"For people who are straight thugs and stealing things because it's convenient and easy and acceptable, then those people are the people we are really going to concentrate on to say, 'No more. We gave you two passes, two slaps on the wrist and now you're going to get a felony,'" Smittcamp said.

Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward released a statement that reads, in part:

"In Tulare County, the number of petty thieves who have three or more prior criminal offenses is up 371% from before the implementation of Proposition 47. In addition, 82% of petty theft offenders already have a previous and open pending case trailing in court. This new law should send a message to these kinds of criminals in our county that my office will use every tool given to us to hold them accountable."

Prop 36 will also have stiffer penalties for those trafficking fentanyl, including increased time behind bars.

"The threat of jail sometimes is what stops people from this behavior," Smittcamp said. "The threat of jail is what sometimes catapults people into drug treatment."

UC Merced Political Science Professor Nate Monroe says critics of prop 36 may see the law as an over-prosecution, where the punishment may be too harsh for the crime itself.

"A consequence of that is we we packed prisons, and we had a lot of people incarcerated for a really long time," Monroe explained. "That created a lot of pressure and a lot of economic investment in that."

Proposition 36 will go into effect no later than December 18th and Smittcamp says the full impact will take time to see.

"This isn't the answer to criminal behaviors and patterns in California, but this is the first step," Smittcamp said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom had tried to keep this proposition from passing.

In a statement sent to Action News, Newsom explained his concerns about the Prop 36, writing:

"Even before this initiative passed, my office and the Legislature significantly strengthened the penalties for retail theft. My biggest concern with Proposition 36 has been the regressive drug policy written into this initiative. With its passage, local officials in California now have the difficult task of sorting through a new mandate for drug treatment that actually reduces local funding for those programs. I don't envy their work. We're examining the impact of Proposition 36 to see if the state needs to delay its planned closure of prisons in California. As the LAO has said, we'll need to make space for thousands of new inmates convicted of possessing drugs - and that's going to cost taxpayers, likely at the expense of other programs."

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