After the novel three-strikes law passed in 1994, making the third violent felony a life sentence, the crime rate greatly dropped. Other measures followed, establishing laws about sexual assault.
But with strong laws comes a large jail population.
This was a ballot initiative that passed three years later, minimizing numerous nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors.
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Police and politicians say it was an ill-conceived law that fooled voters, as evidenced most recently by a surge in looting in the Bay Area. Because thefts aren't usually prosecuted, many retailers in liberal San Francisco have shut down.
"The easiest way to reduce crime is to fix Proposition 47 and reimpose strong sentencing for the pervasive retail theft that is literally closing stores across our state," said Tracy McCray, vice president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.
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"Exacerbating the situation is San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin's insistence on dropping or downgrading charges of those caught red-handed that allows those very same crooks to further victimize our communities over and over again."
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Before Proposition 47, anything more than $450 was gd theft — a crime.
It's easy to see how the public fell for a battle to vote for this law, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told the Washington Examiner.
Celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Kevin Hart, Arsenio Hall, Alyssa Milano, John Legend, and Jay Z backed the measure, with the letter talking about it during a 2014 Rose Bowl concert. Catholic bishops in California got behind it, thinking that prison savings would be spent on rehabilitation.
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"Pope Francis called upon the legal community to examine and address the causes of crime — which are rooted in economic and social inequality," the bishops said in a statement. "He further emphasized that the increase in harsh sentencing does nothing to address the underlying issues."
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What the public wasn't told was that a specialized drug court in the state's courthouses had been a highly successful rehabilitation tool that got users excited to have their charges dismissed along with the prison sentence upon conclusion of treatment, sober.
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"They sold this as a bill of goods that was going to reform the criminal justice system and relieve prison overcrowding — this was going to do everything," Villanueva said. "It was very well organized and financed by the typical George Soros types who think cops are bad, crooks are good."
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The main advocates of the project were then-San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, then-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the California Teachers Association. Law enforcement and prosecutors opposed it.
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