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The ACLU of Northern California opposed Proposition 36 because we knew it was a misguided ballot measure that would defund critical crime prevention and drug treatment programs, while creating a massive unfunded mandate that would cost counties billions of dollars and do nothing to improve public safety.
Now that California voters have approved Prop 36, it is up to the mayors, supervisors, prosecutors and law enforcement groups who claimed it would help reduce crime and homelessness, to deliver on their promises.
Meanwhile, the ACLU and our partners will continue to fight to ensure that thousands of Californians who need help aren’t warehoused in jail or prison simply because there are not enough treatment options available.
“We will work to prevent Proposition 36 from becoming a tool or an excuse to dismantle decades of progress on criminal justice reform and common-sense public safety policies that the ACLU has long pursued,” said Abdi Soltani, executive director of the ACLU of Northern California. “The broad coalition of organizations that opposed Prop 36, including business, labor, teachers, law enforcement and front-line healthcare workers, will continue to advocate for smart and effective criminal justice reform and public safety solutions that work for all communities.”
Prop 36 makes certain types of shoplifting a felony, while increasing criminal penalties for certain drug charges, including fentanyl. It allows judges to order defendants with multiple drug charges into treatment. But it doesn’t provide any money for new treatment beds.
Our fear all along however, was that rather than ushering in an “era of mass treatment” to help people addicted to drugs or alcohol get off the street, as backers claimed, Prop 36 will instead cut funding to the too-few drug treatment programs that currently exist.
Sadly, it is part of a broader conservative strategy in California and across the nation to roll back criminal justice reforms aimed at interrupting the cycle of mass incarceration of Black and Brown people.
