The California Legislature is expected to approve a voter initiative this week for the November ballot to crack down on retail theft and fentanyl dealers, an effort designed to compete against a tougher-on-crime measure championed by a group of county district attorneys.
The plan comes after days of tense negotiations between Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration and Democratic legislative leaders, and details about the initiative were made public in a bill released Sunday night.
The measure would overhaul the controversial criminal justice reform California voters approved a decade ago, Proposition 47, which changed certain minor drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and invested in mental health and drug treatment.
The move would amount to an abrupt political shift for Newsom, who earlier this year said he opposed efforts to alter Proposition 47 through the ballot measure process and insisted that necessary reforms could be handled legislatively.
The move comes just weeks after a group of county district attorneys approved an anti-crime initiative for the November ballot. Newsom criticized the DA-led plan as a regressive effort that could take California back to the mass incarceration era of the 1990s.
The latest ballot initiative would address repeat shoplifting by making the third shoplifting-related misdemeanor offense in a three-year period punishable by three years in prison. In cases involving multiple thefts, if the total amount stolen exceeds $950, the offenses could be prosecuted as felonies.
The proposal would also enact harsher penalties for traffickers who knowingly mixed drugs with fentanyl without the buyer’s knowledge. Under the measure, judges would also be required to issue warnings to convicted fentanyl traffickers about the lethal risks associated with distributing the drug, making it easier for prosecutors to charge traffickers with murder if a death occurs. The initiative would also increase resources for drug treatment and mental health programs.
If the measure passes the Democratic-led Legislature this week, as expected, California voters in November will see two competing crime measures on the ballot: the one supported by the governor and the separate Crime Reduction Act. Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft. which has strong support among some county district attorneys and anti-crime groups.
Prosecutors' initiative would change the law to make a third offense of theft, regardless of the value of the merchandise, a felony punishable by up to three years in state prison. The measure would also make possession of fentanyl a felony. Finally, the proposal would impose a “felony with mandatory treatment” the third time someone is arrested for drug possession.
California voters passed Proposition 47 in 2014, during a time when the tough-on-crime policies of the past were under attack as ineffective and unfair, and when courts found the state's overcrowded prison system to be unconstitutional.
Before that measure passed, thefts could be considered a felony if the stolen merchandise was valued at $450 or more, but Proposition 47 raised the threshold to $950. Critics have criticized the change since it was enacted, saying the reduced punishment led to an increase in robberies in California. Newsom and other Proposition 47 supporters said most other states, including Texas, have higher dollar amount thresholds than California for a suspect to be charged with a felony.
Newsom and the Legislature plan to cut prison spending and move away from a criminal justice system that relies on incarceration. They argue that the initiative spearheaded by prosecutors could end up placing low-level drug and theft offenders back into state prisons instead of jails, where they serve time for lesser crimes, vastly increasing California’s prison population.
The Legislature is also considering what is now a companion bill package that, among several things, would give store owners the opportunity to file restraining orders against repeat offenders and give prosecutors better tools to prosecute carjackings and multiple burglaries that occur in different counties.
The new bill made public Sunday is the result of several weeks of behind-the-scenes discussions and contentious political maneuvering involving both the crime bills and the bills that were intertwined during the debate on Capitol Hill.
Most notably, this comes after Democrats unexpectedly inserted an amendment into the crime bills that would repeal parts of the legislation (which until then enjoyed bipartisan support) if voters approved the DA-backed referendum initiative. That amendment has recently been removed from the bills, but the criticism and distrust that the move generated remains.
“It was a punch in the stomach for the promoters,” said Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, one of the prosecutors involved in the effort.
Since then, members of the Republican and Democratic parliamentary groups, and leaders of the coalition led by the prosecutor, have quarreled via separately live-streamed press conferences over the political maneuverings that were taking place.
“Do not make politics in matters of public security. It’s not the right thing to do in the current context,” said Greg Totten, executive director of the California District Attorneys Association and a supporter of the prosecutor-led initiative. “We all came together to draft and qualify a referendum initiative, frankly because the politicians on Capitol Hill have ignored our concerns.”
The Democratic caucus has reportedly since split, with members removing their names from the bipartisan package due to strong-arm tactics.
