Proposition 5 establishes a California secretary of rehabilitation and parole and other departments, offices and programs intended to provide rehabilitation and alternative sentencing for drug defendants. The proposition also, requires California to expand and increase funding and oversight for individualized treatment and rehabilitation programs for nonviolent drug offenders and parolees; Reduces criminal consequences of nonviolent drug offenses by mandating three-tiered probation with treatment and by providing for case dismissal and/or sealing of records after probation; Limits court’s authority to incarcerate offenders who violate probation or parole; Shortens parole for most drug offenses, including sales, and for nonviolent property crimes; Creates numerous divisions, boards, commissions, and reporting requirements regarding drug treatment and rehabilitation; and, changes certain marijuana misdemeanors to infractions.
lbpost.com columnists Dennis C. Smith and Daniel Brezenoff help us make sense of Prop 5, below.
Dennis C. Smith
Prop 5: Nonviolent Drug Offenses. Sentencing, Parole and Rehabilitation. Initiative Status. This proposition puts and additional $460 million annually into treatment programs. How much money is being spent now? What are the outcomes? What is the success rate of the current programs? There is no accountability for the funds we spend now. We dump so much money into rehab programs, anti-this and anti-that programs, and it seems like they want more and more money and we just have more and more people engaged in illegal and illicit activities. Obviously the current programs are not working—so fix the programs do not give them more money. My vote is No on Prop 5.
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Daniel Brezenoff
What it does: Essentially recognizes many drug offenses as victimless crimes, providing more funding for treatment and less power for judges to incarcerate nonviolent offenders.
Pros: Sanity, justice, and reason in the government response to drug abuse and addiction (maybe).
Cons: Seriously? Conservatives despise “druggies”. Prison is a booming industry in troubled economic times. The war on drugs is an excuse to curtail liberties and extend executive/police power. Not sure what else.
How I’m voting: Guess.
What a sane adult puts in his or her body is his or her business. Prohibition doesn’t work; it makes things worse by creating a criminal class with unlimited capital. Drug addiction and abuse is a public health issue, and ought have nothing to do with law enforcement. The more we get that, the better off we’ll be. We’ll save money, and save lives. We’ll allow the police to focus on violent crime, and the adversarial relationship encouraged in urban communities by the war on drugs will diminish profoundly. This bill is a bargain.
The war on drugs is a travesty. We need to end it. This is a step.
Will it pass? It’s a close one, but I say yes. Californians are too smart to believe that prison solves drug problems. We know that treatment is better, and we like to lead the way – especially when it comes to freedom.
Trivia: I inhaled. Then I exhaled. Then I went to sleep.