Prisoners Freed Quickly After Voters OK Prop 47

ap ^ | November 7, 2014 4:29 PM

[BenLurkin]

A ballot measure passed by voters this week is already freeing California suspects from jail as their felony charges are reduced to misdemeanors, and people previously convicted of the charges receive reduced sentences as they appear in court.

Sheriffs across the state immediately began implementing Proposition 47, which calls for treating shoplifting, forgery, fraud, petty theft and possession of small amounts of drugs, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines, as misdemeanors instead of felonies.

Two-dozen suspects who were being held on those charges walked out of Sacramento County jail two days after 58 percent of voters approved the initiative on Tuesday. They were among the more than 400 Sacramento jail inmates expected to be freed while they await trial on reduced charges that in many cases will no longer keep people behind bars after arrests.

Other sheriffs immediately changed arrest policies while they reviewed which inmates qualify for release. Meanwhile, inmates in state prison on the charges can petition for release.

...

Critics predicted, however, that the measure will hurt public safety.

“It’s a grand experiment: Can we take this money we’re no longer spending on jail and prison and turn it into rehabilitation one day down the line?” said Cory Salzillo, legislative director for the California State Sheriffs’ Association. “But the one thing we have for certain is more crime, less people in custody and more victims.”

[Bob]

Thanks for clarifying. I was sloppy in the terminology. IIRC though, there have been some initiatives that were put on the ballot by the legislature as well, haven’t there?

[mrsmith]

Give us Barabbas! ...And free stuff!

[Captain Compassion]

With reduced penalities for crimes I suspect that California will start attracting criminals from other states. This will help offset the businesses that are leaving.

[faithhopecharity]

Yes there’s a procedure for that too. ( and even when citizens vote the courts can still overturn that direct will of the people, such as happened in Californicate when the courts threw out the people’s referendum to repeal the Rumford Fair Housing law passed by the legislature).

[M-cubed]

If only I hadn’t lost all my guns and ammunition down an unmarked mine shaft on that trip to the desert,<<

Luckily I live near the ocean!...so I lost mine in a canoe accident...but I feel your pain....

[Steven Scharf]

In the United States, a popular vote on a measure is referred to as a referendum only when originating with the legislature. An initiative may be called a “ballot measure”, “initiative measure”, or “proposition”.
The United States has no initiative process at the national level, but the initiative is in use at the level of state government in 24 states and the District of Columbia, and is also in common use at the local government level.

In the United States, [People’s Veto] exists, as of May 2009, in 23 states and one territory: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The popular referendum [or People’s Veto] was first introduced in the United States by South Dakota in 1898, and first used in the United States in 1906, in Oregon, two years after the initiative was used (in 1904, also in Oregon).

[Utilizer]

Yes, it is now working on this end as well. Someone must have corrected the link.

[DoughtyOne]

I just voted and I don’t recall seeing this on the ballot.

Just looked it up, and I did review this and vote no on it. As usual, my no was voted down by the idiots in the state.

[SaraJohnson]

Much of the middle class American-Americans left California. I guess the plan is to replace them with illegals and criminals.