Concerns about crime among Californians are putting pressure on criminal justice reform and progressive prosecutors

Ten years after Proposition 47 passed, Bean’s grievances are increasingly shared by Californians, with shoplifting incidents captured on videos going viral and fueling a sense that the state has become lawless. And increasingly, voters are shifting the blame for this on efforts to promote criminal justice reform, on Proposition 47 and on progressive prosecutors.

The issue has resulted in some close races in the solidly blue state this year for Democratic and progressive members of Congress, mayors and district attorneys up for re-election. And a new statewide measure, Proposition 36, would partially roll back the 2014 law.

Critics say criminal justice reform has been a failed social experiment.

Two years after voters in San Francisco ousted one of the country’s first reform-minded prosecutors, voters across the bay in Oakland will decide in November whether to recall another progressive district attorney.

To the south, in Los Angeles, District Attorney George Gascón, who co-authored Proposition 47 and won the 2020 election after protests and racist reckonings following the police killing of George Floyd, faces stiff competition from a former federal prosecutor who calls himself a “tough lawyer.” middle” candidate.

“Mr. Gascón has been one of the greatest gifts to gangs,” Nathan Hochman said during their recent debate, castigating him for not pursuing an enhancement of the gang conviction in the high-profile murder of “General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor.

Gascón defends his record, saying the use of gang enhancements has historically been tainted with racial bias and that a special committee makes decisions on a case-by-case basis. His office says it has prosecuted more than 100,000 “serious crimes” in the past four years, a figure on par with the previous decade.

Gascón has also come under scrutiny for his office’s policy of not trying juveniles as adults, with critics pointing to cases of recidivism.

They include a man who, at age 16, took part in a 2018 gas station robbery and was later released from a juvenile detention facility, only to be arrested and charged in connection with murder in April. Another, a 17-year-old gang member who admitted in 2019 to a double murder and could have faced life in prison, was released last February and arrested months later in connection with another killing.

Hochman, a former Republican who is running as an independent candidate, has raised nearly $4 million for his campaign, compared to $678,000 for Gascón.

Frustration over shoplifting has prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to champion a series of bills that crack down on serial offenders and car thieves but fail to make shopping crimes crimes again.

Proposition 36 goes further: It would make theft of any amount a crime if someone already has two theft convictions, extend certain sentences for theft and drug crimes, make possession of fentanyl a misdemeanor and require people with multiple charges to they complete treatment or else serve a prison sentence. .

Voters rejected a similar initiative in 2020, but this time there is a bipartisan coalition supporting Proposition 36. More than 180 democratically elected officials, including 64 mayors, signed a campaign last month in support of the initiative.

The measure is also endorsed by the California Chamber of Commerce and major retailers such as Walmart, Target and Home Depot. A recent poll from the Public Policy Institute of California found that 71% of likely voters said they would vote yes.

“It’s hard for businesses and communities that are really on the front lines,” said Jennifer Barrera, president of the California Chamber of Commerce. “I think it will probably increase the number of incarcerations… but I also hope and expect that it will certainly have an impact on reducing crime.”