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CONSIDER RECOMMENDING TO COUNCIL THE ADOPTION OF A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE CREATION OF A COUNTY-WIDE PROPOSITION 47 IMPLEMENTATION TASK FORCE AND A RESOLUTION THAT ADOPTS A POSITION OF SUPPORT FOR ASSEMBLY BILL 2765 WHICH SEEKS TO REMOVE THE NOVEMBER 2017 DEADLINE FOR PETITIONING OR APPLYING FOR A REDUCTION OF SENTENCES WHICH WOULD PROVIDE CITIES AND COUNTIES, AS WELL AS THE COURTS, MORE TIME TO COMPLETE THIS CRITICAL RECORD CHANGE WORK.
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This item was referred to the Committee by the City Council on April 12, 2016, for review, discussion and recommendation to the entire Council.
Background
Last year, California voters approved Proposition 47: The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act (“Prop 47”), which reduced certain non-violent, non-serious drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. By reducing the number of people serving prison sentences for low-level, nonviolent offenses, Prop 47 was designed to help reduce California’s prison overcrowding one year ahead of a federal court deadline. Anticipating that the law would result in savings, the law directed that such savings flow to local jurisdictions to be spent on (1) mental health and substance use treatment, (2) truancy and dropout prevention among K-12 public school students, and (3) victim services. The law applied retroactively as well as prospectively, thereby allowing currently or formerly incarcerated people to apply to change their criminal record.
Though premised in part on the proposition that treatment of addiction would increase public safety more than long prison sentences, the law did not provide immediate funding for such treatment. Many communities throughout California are galvanizing to revise former “tough on crime” policies and replace them with policies that reflect the people’s will in the passage of Proposition 47 and the restorative approach that focuses on prevention and treatment as a priority for addressing the root causes of crime. Such an approach requires reviewing necessary changes that public safety leaders must make in order to protect public safety and advance justice in this new context. This is a complex task that will require significant collaboration between law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, the Court, corrections professionals, the defense bar and service providers as well as the private sector. Accordingly, it is appropriate to consider passing a resolution to support and encourage the Board of Supervisors to adopt a Resolution similar to the one adopted by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and lead the way by calling on all law enforcement agencies to work in fully collaborative manner to move away from mass incarceration and towards implementation of smarter criminal justice policies. Such efforts in San Joaquin County should serve as a state-wide model of how to transform a justice system that is primarily focused on punishment to a more effective system focused on prevention, rehabilitation and restoration and in that vein, more effectively promote safety and serve the citizens of this region.