Welcome to prison world.
Parts of this law seem reasonable to me.
IMO only violent criminals should be imprisoned. The rest should do community service by working on a security wall between the US and Mexico. Pay them minimum wage and house them in old FEMA trailers for a few months. Hard work is a good punishment and one not soon forgotten.
Draw a picture of a gun? Now that is a hangin’.
I support it. Prison space should be reserved for people who commit serious crimes against people/property.
Does it make it sense to throw someone in jail for a small bounced check, a small amount of marijuana or petty theft? Of course not.
In those cases, a fine/restitution is a more appropriate punishment than locking someone up for a minor offense. And the voters agreed.
Its not being soft on crime; its reserving expensive jail space for those who truly deserve to be there. People who are accused of rape, assault, kidnapping, murder, major theft, serious forgery and financial crimes and drug trafficking and terrorism.
That way we can protect society by employing law enforcement and justice system resources in an appropriate, compassionate and cost-effective manner.
The legal and easy way of dealing with a surfeit of prisoners is to use the Joe Arpaio “tent jail” system. It is definitely neither cruel nor unusual, by international law, yet it costs a fraction of “brick” jails. And they can be erected just about anywhere.
California has a huge amount of desert that could easily house hundreds of thousands of prisoners in uncrowded conditions, surrounded by two chain link fences with concertina wire on top, with water and food trucked in.
The prisoners sleep in big tents, eat in big tents, get any needed medical care and other services in big tents. And they might have to walk 20 miles on dirt road just to get to a paved road, so even if they escape, there is nowhere to go.
Ironically, prisoners that are troublemakers, need to appear in court, or have family or medical problems aren’t sent to the tent jails. They stay in the brick jails. The tent jails are for trustees, and they are there as a reward for good behavior. They get fresh air, sunshine, and much less noise.