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California Passes Tougher Crime Measure Backed by Retailers

A voter submits their ballot at an official ballot drop box at a polling location for the 2024 Presidential election in San Francisco, California, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. The 2024 presidential campaign was marked by two assassination attempts, a candidate switch, divisive rhetoric and warnings about the fate of democracy. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- California voters rolled back key elements of the state’s landmark criminal justice reform, reflecting mounting frustration over brazen retail thefts and open-air drug use.

Proposition 36 was leading with 70.4% support to 29.6% against the measure, with about 95% of precincts reporting as of Wednesday morning, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

The initiative scales back parts of a 2014 ballot measure that reclassified many drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. It united an unusual coalition of Democratic mayors, major retailers including Walmart Inc. and Target Corp., and conservative district attorneys. They argued that prosecutors needed more power to charge accused thieves as felons and compel drug users into treatment under threat of jail time.

“The passage of Proposition 36 is an important first step for California.  It gives us the tools we need to begin an era of mass treatment so we can end the era of chronic homelessness, addiction and despair,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, one of the measure’s most vocal proponents of the Yes campaign, which raised more than $16 million. Opponents of the initiative raised about $7.7 million.

Among the key changes is the softening of California’s $950 threshold for shoplifting to be charged as a felony. Now, individuals with two prior theft-related convictions can face up to three years in prison for stealing small amounts of goods. The measure also introduces a new category of crime targeting drug users, requiring them to complete treatment or face up to three years in prison.

The proposition divided California Democrats, with dozens of local mayors like Mahan supporting the measure, while Governor Gavin Newsom opposed it. Other supporters included a prison-guard union and Chris Larsen, the billionaire co-founder of Ripple Labs.

Opponents of Prop 36 argued that California’s criminal justice reforms have successfully reduced incarceration rates, cut racial disparities in arrests and saved the state hundreds of millions in prison costs. Since the passage of Prop 47 in 2014, approximately $800 million in prison savings has been redirected to mental health programs and other services.

Retailers emerged as major backers of the proposition as California has seen a surge in property crimes during the pandemic. A recent study said property crimes increased in the years after Prop 47 was passed but attributed most of the state’s more recent spike in property crime to pandemic-related responses by the criminal justice system.

(Updates with comment from San Jose mayor in fourth paragraph.)

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