Less on prisons, more on prevention? California starts the shift

Sacramento Bee Thursday, June 8, 2017 - BY RENNIE SVIRNOVSKIY

Two and a half years after 60 percent of
Californians voted for Proposition 47, the initiative is coming to a head.

The measure reduced nonviolent drug and property
crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and
reallocated the money saved into programs for
mental health, substance abuse treatment, victim
services and truancy prevention.

Now the money is finally going somewhere, and
it’s a lot of money. $103 million, to be exact.

What took so long?

“The intent of the measure was to capture prison
savings, so time had to pass in order for those
savings to emerge,” said Lenore Anderson,
executive director of Californians for Safety and
Justice, a sponsor of the initiative. “The first
thing the ballot initiative did was change the
penalty for six low-level crimes, and then the
subsequent savings it generated in the state
prison budget as a result of those penalty
changes would be reallocated to prevention treatments.”

On Thursday this starts, after lots of back and
forth between law enforcement and vocal
proponents of the measure like the ACLU, Mental
Health America in California and California Catholic Conference.

Opponents noted that crime rose in some
communities in the year following the measure’s
passage. Backers pointed out that stepped up
prevention programs had yet to begin.

After whittling down a list of 58 proposals for
funding from various jurisdictions across the
state, the Board of State and Community
Corrections (BSCC) will announce later today
which applicants will receive grants.
Jurisdictions like San Diego County, the San
Francisco Department of Public Health, San
Joaquin County Behavioral Health Service, Los
Angeles County Department of Health Services and
several others have received formal
recommendations – for proposals that prioritized
diversion, mental health and drug treatments in
their local communities – but now await final approval.

Most of those who are chosen will be awarded
between $1 million and $6 million to devote to
their new programs, which seek to shrink the
California prison populations and prison funding
that have steadily increased over the past 25
years by addressing drivers of crime.

“This is a huge advance for California and what I
hope is only the beginning,” Anderson said. “We
need to continue to rebalance our public safety investments.

“With a high recidivism rate and with communities
still dealing with cycles of crime and violence,
the question that most Californians have been
asking is, can we do better?” Anderson said. “Can
we have a more balanced approach to safety – one
that prioritizes local prevention and treatments
over one-size-fits-all costly and bloated prison
policy? This is a huge advance for California and
what I hope is only the beginning. We need to
continue to rebalance our public safety investments.”

Source link:
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article154990204.html