A chance to toughen criminal penalties
Measure making 2020 ballot would also boost DNA collection from those convicted of nonviolent crimes.
SACRAMENTO — California voters will decide whether to increase penalties for some crimes while expanding the collection of DNA from those convicted of nonviolent offenses under an initiative that earned a place Monday on the 2020 ballot.
The initiative by the group Crime Victims United of California was determined by the secretary of state’s office to have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
“This will make California safer,” said Assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove), a key proponent of the initiative who spent 30 years with the Sacramento County Sheriff ’s Department.
The ballot measure would roll back some provisions of previous initiatives that were aimed at reducing prison populations, including one from 2014’s Proposition 47 that reduced felony theft charges to misdemeanors in cases in which the stolen goods are valued at less than $950.
Under the initiative, thefts valued at $250 to $950 could be charged as felonies, addressing what officials say has been a rash of shoplifting and taking advantage of the lesser penalties.
The measure also addresses concerns about 2016’s Proposition 57, which allowed early release from behind bars for many nonviolent offenders.
The new initiative would expand the number of crimes considered “violent felonies” to include some rape and child trafficking charges previously excluded from the definition that were subject to early release.
“The recent reforms have eroded public safety’s ability to protect people and have caused an explosion in the victims of crime in California,” Nina Salarno Besselman, the president of Crime Victims United of California, said when the initiative was first announced.
The measure would also repeal recent changes in state law that eliminated DNA collection for theft and drug crimes, and it allows more revocations of probation by requiring offenders with repeat violations to go back before a judge.
Cooper said the recent use of DNA evidence in the arrest of a man suspected of being the Golden State Killer showed how important such evidence is in solving crimes.
Besselman, who lost a sister to violent crime, said the initiative would “ensure that the prosecutors are fully able to utilize DNA evidence to catch and convict rapists and murderers and to solve cold cases so those families that long for justice can see justice served.”
The initiative addresses changes made in state law to overhaul sentencing policies after federal judges imposed a cap on the state’s prison population in 2011.
The measure earned a spot on the ballot Monday on the same day Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra released an annual report showing the state’s violent crime rate increased 1.5% in 2017 compared with a year earlier, while the property crime rate decreased 2.1%.
Gov. Jerry Brown opposes the initiative.
“Read the fine print,” Brown said in a statement Monday. “This flawed initiative would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and endanger public safety by restricting parole and undermining inmate rehabilitation.”