California voters will have a chance to make theft of under $950 a felony once again – sometimes – when they cast their ballots on Proposition 36 next month.
Amid a surge in shoplifting and viral videos of wanton gangs brazenly cleaning out California stores, the proposition seeks to partially roll back the infamous Proposition 47 passed in 2014 that reduced theft of less than $950 from a felony to a misdemeanor – no matter how many times a person is convicted of such theft.
With criminals keeping close tabs on how much they steal each caper, careers in shoplifting have been booming. Shoplifting in California has shot up 28% in just the last five years. Shoplifting in Los Angeles, for example, skyrocketed 81% in just the past year (2022-2023).
What’s more, Proposition 47 has apparently discouraged California’s law enforcement officers from arresting criminals, as KQED in San Francisco explains:
“What has changed over the past decade is the likelihood that police will arrest someone for stealing. According to state data obtained by KQED, about 15% of theft cases resulted in an arrest in 2013, the year before Proposition 47 passed. In 2022, that number had dropped to 6.6%.
“That means in more than 90% of reported cases of theft, no one is ever arrested.”
“California has reached a tipping point in its homelessness, drug, mental health, and theft crises,” the text of Proposition 36 declares, noting that “drug overdoses now kill two to three times the number of people in California as car accidents.”
But, even if passed, Proposition 36 would allow felony charges and longer sentences for theft under $950 only after the defendant has been convicted at least three times. Thus, a shoplifter could only be convicted with a misdemeanor the first two times he’s caught stealing $949 of goods or less.
Likewise, a person could be charged with a felony for possession of “hard drugs” only after at least two prior felony convictions for the same offense.
And even then, if the defendant is charged with possessing hard drugs a third time (after two prior convictions), he can still avoid jail and have the arrest completely erased, due to the proposition’s creation of a “treatment-mandated felony”:
“Under this new ‘treatment-mandated felony,’ prosecutors would have the discretion to charge a felony for hard drug possession after two previous drug convictions. If charged with this ‘treatment-mandated felony’ for a third or subsequent drug offense, the offender would be given the option of participating in drug and mental health treatment.
“If the offender successfully completes drug and mental health treatment, the charge would be fully expunged, and the offender would receive no jail time.”
For a second conviction of the treatment-mandated felony (the 4th total conviction for hard drug possession), a judge would have the “option” of imposing time in jail or state prison, meaning imprisonment would still not be mandatory.
And, in addition to hard drug and mental health treatment, offenders charged with a treatment-mandated felony would also be offered:
- Free shelter,
- Free job training, and
- “Other services designed to break the cycle of addiction and homelessness.”
Proposition 36 would add fentanyl to the list of hard drugs (cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine) and increase drug penalties when guns are involved in the crimes.