San Andreas, CA…After a decade of experimentation with criminal justice reforms under Prop 47, California voters now have an opportunity to consider whether to change course with Prop 36. Since 2014, with narrow exception, possessing hard drugs like methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl can never be treated as a felony no matter if it is the 3rd, 5th or 10th conviction, and repeat retail thieves are always treated the same as a misdemeanor first time thief so long as they don’t take over $950 in goods each time they steal. Prop 36 ends these caps on repeat offenders, and law enforcement will instead be permitted to arrest, prosecute and treat 3rd time hard drug and theft offenders more seriously than first time offenders.

Prop 36 creates a mandated treatment felony as an option for 3rd time hard drug offenders. The possibility of incarceration serves primarily as incentive for the defendant to accept help and the defendant’s case is dismissed if they successfully complete drug treatment. A 3rd time offender can only go to jail if they refuse or fail treatment. A 4th time offender can only go to prison for the same reasons. Locally, law enforcement knows that most people addicted to methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl, wish they could quit. If rehabilitation was easy and they could do it on their own, they would. By the time someone is arrested for hard drugs for the third or fourth time, outside interventions and incentives are arguably more humane than letting the addict, their families, and their communities continue to suffer the often devastating consequences of addiction.

With Prop 36, on a 3rd conviction for retail theft, the crime can be treated as a local jail felony. A 4th conviction can be a prison felony. Prop 36 maintains treating 1st and 2nd time thieves as low level misdemeanors but gives law enforcement additional options in those cases where the thief did not learn their lesson the first two times. Prop 36 also creates a new crime for theft committed in concert with two or more people and increases the potential punishment when a merchant suffers more than $50,000 in losses.

Finally, Prop 36 recognizes the serious impact fentanyl has had on our communities in recent years. Fentanyl would be added to the list of hard drugs with increased punishment when a loaded gun is involved, and Prop 36 would make those offenses prison eligible. Fentanyl would be added to the list of hard drugs with higher penalties for higher volume dealers, and Prop 36 would also make those drug traffickers eligible for prison. When a person suffers great bodily injury from using hard drugs, Prop 36 provides additional punishment for the dealer. Prop 36 puts convicted hard drug dealers on notice that they could be charged with murder if they sell drugs to a person and that person dies as a result.

If Prop 36 doesn’t pass, we will continue down the road paved by Prop 47 that has led to hardships for retail businesses, their employees, and our broader community. When local businesses close, jobs are lost, and sales tax revenue is lost, resulting in even more limitations on government services. Further, a Stanford study in 2022 on the homeless crisis in California, noted Prop 47’s role in increasing homelessness and blocking homeless people from receiving drug treatment. Prop 47 obstructed the criminal justice system’s ability to funnel people into
treatment resulting in far fewer people participating in drug courts and receiving mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Prop 36 is an opportunity to address a decade of failed criminal justice reform that had aimed at reducing mass incarceration and promoting rehabilitation but instead increased homelessness and prevented rehabilitation for many people who needed it. Prop 36 will not fix everything that broke under Prop 47 ten years ago and it will not be an instant cure-all for homelessness and drug addiction. However, Prop 36 will bring back tools for law enforcement to deal with repeat theft and hard drug offenders, including treatment options. Prop 36 will also give us new tools to begin addressing the increasing dangers of fentanyl in our community. Whether or not you believe that a person might steal to support their drug addiction, and whether or not you believe that drug addiction can lead to homelessness, if you believe that law enforcement can or should play a role in protecting the public from the impacts of theft and hard drugs, law enforcement must be given the tools to do so.

Barbara M. Yook
District Attorney
Calaveras County

Rachelle Whiting
Sheriff
Calaveras County

Kim Craddock
Chief Probation Officer
Calaveras County

Scott Ellis
Chief of Police
Angels Camp