Notable criminal justice counter-initiative looking likely to come before California voters

As reported in this local article, headlined “Backers say they have enough signatures to qualify Prop 47 rollback initiative,” an interesting criminal justice ballot measure looks likely to come before California voters this fall.  Here are some of the details:

Critics who blame California’s 2014 Proposition 47 for runaway drug addiction, retail theft and urban squalor said Thursday they have collected enough signatures to qualify a November ballot measure that would restore penalties for serial thieves and treatment requirements for addicts.

Backers including owners of small businesses, social justice leaders and drug victim families gathered in San Francisco and Los Angeles to announce they have collected about 900,000 voter signatures, significantly more than the 546,651 required by April 23, and are turning them in to the Attorney General’s Office.

“Prop 47 achieved notable success in making California’s criminal justice system more equitable,” supporters of the proposed Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act. “However, it led to unintended consequences over the past decade — repeat and often organized retail theft, inner-city store closings, and difficulty convincing people to seek drug and mental health treatment — that can only be corrected by the voters at the ballot box with modest amendments to Prop 47.”

Prop 47 was among a series of laws and initiatives over the last 15 years aimed at depopulating overcrowded California prisons and addressing social justice concerns that have since been blamed for spurring brazen retail thefts, store closures and unchecked drug addiction. Promoted to voters as the “Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act,” Prop 47 reduced most drug possession and property crimes valued at $950 or less to misdemeanors and allowed for resentencing of those convicted of felonies for those offenses….

Prop 47 passed with nearly 60% voter approval.  An earlier effort to toughen up some of the penalties reduced by Prop 47 — Proposition 20 in 2020 — failed.  The impact on crime of Prop 47 continues to be furiously debated….  But supporters of the proposed November initiative say there’s no way to fix the state’s theft and drug problems without walking back parts of Prop 47….

Supporters stress that the proposed initiative would amend but not repeal Prop 47. It would make a third conviction for retail theft a felony, regardless of the amount stolen.  Before Prop 47, a second conviction would become a felony, but the 2014 initiative eliminated consequences for repeat offenses.  The proposed measure also would add penalties for dealing fentanyl, a cheap and deadly synthetic opioid, and provide incentives for convicted addicts to seek treatment.