Opinion article: Proposition 36 is a backwards mass incarceration plan that solves nothing

As leaders of organizations and agencies that support people facing mass incarceration, poverty, and substance abuse, we make a loud and urgent call to stop Proposition 36 and the irreparable harm it will do to our entire community if passed.

The proposal is falsely presented as an attempt to reduce crime, homelessness and substance abuse. In reality, the proposal will only exacerbate the problems it claims to address.

Proposition 36 is literally a proposal to go backwards. It aims to undo the gains in public safety achieved by the passage of Proposition 47 in 2014. That proposal, which was overwhelmingly supported by voters, reclassified six low-level felonies to misdemeanors and earmarked the savings from cutting prison sentences for actual solutions: drug and mental health treatment, housing, reentry services and more.

The initiative worked: it significantly reduced the prison population, raising millions to fund needed programs to get people back on their feet and out of the cycle of addiction, and reduced recidivism, meaning fewer people reoffend after they’re released. So despite the sensationalist, fear-mongering propaganda of the Yes on Proposition 36 campaign, crime rates have actually dropped since the passage of Proposition 47.

This is still true today. The latest data from the California Department of Justice showed a decline in crime in 2023, including violent and property crime. These statistics were ironically recently shared by San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan as he celebrated San Jose as the “safest big city” in the Bay Area, even as he makes false claims about rising crime to advocate for Proposition 36.

This truth is not to deny the reality that our communities are still struggling and need support. Our people are suffering from trying to survive in the most expensive place to live in the country, with a lack of treatment and mental health care, and with prisons as the most invested “answer” to public health, housing, and economic needs. That’s why Santa Clara County declared substance abuse and mental health a public health crisis in 2022 instead of a reactionary demand for more incarceration.

That’s why Proposition 36, promoted as the “Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act,” is so dangerously unfair. Punishing someone with a low-cost felony doesn’t magically give them a place to live. Locking someone up with a drug addiction doesn’t cure their addiction. Sending someone to prison makes them less economically stable and less likely to find work when they return to our community with a history of incarceration.

The reality is that Proposition 36’s plan to vanish and warehouse the homeless and poor in jails is as shortsighted as it is sinister. Our people will come back to us from their incarceration, only worse off.

It is telling that Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, with whom we have often clashed in our debates about the criminal justice system, also opposes Proposition 36. He correctly pointed out that Proposition 36’s claim that it would result in “court-ordered treatment” was a fool’s errand. In a Mercury News article, he stated, “What this initiative doesn’t do is provide more funding for drug treatment… If there’s no bed available, you don’t treat it.” He continued, “We’re not going to punish our way out of drug addiction. We tried it, and it didn’t work.”

The only certain impact Proposition 36 will have is a massive increase in the prison population, costing California hundreds of millions of dollars annually, according to estimates from the Legislative Analyst’s Office. We don’t need to go back to overcrowded prisons, the failed drug war that decimated communities of color, or the criminalization of public health issues. We need to say no to Proposition 36 and yes to real solutions.

Molly O’Neal is the chief district attorney for Santa Clara County, Reverend Jeff Moore is president of the NAACP San Jose/Silicon Valley, and Raj Jayadev is founder of Silicon Valley De-Bug.