Criminal Justice ‘Reform’ vs Public Safety

Growing numbers of people are exasperated over the rise of property crimes across the state of California, and they attribute a lot of their frustration to socalled criminal justice reforms spurred by Assembly Bill 109, and Propositions 47 and 57.

In 2011 Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 109 after the State of California was court-ordered to reduce its prison population. The new law aimed to keep lowlevel offenders in county jails instead of having them transferred to state prisons. Voters approved Props 47 and 57 in 2014 and 2016 respectively, which lowered some felonies to misdemeanors and expedited the parole process.

It doesn’t take a criminal justice expert to explain what’s happening on the crime front, including all these recent smash and grabs at brick-and-mortar stores like Nordstrom’s, Louis Vuitton’s, or Home Depot.

It starts and ends with: and Los Angeles to prosecute certain crimes or seek prior felony conviction enhancements — including for gun possession, gang membership and violating the “three strikes” law — that lengthen sentences when suspects are convicted; and • Proposition 47, which among other things, established that crooks caught with someone else’s property with a value of less than $950 is charged with a misdemeanor rather than a felony.

As pointed out in a recent column by S.F. Examiner columnist C.W. Nevius, “But the way the proposition (Prop 47) is written, each offense has been treated separately. ‘So,’ a former high-ranking police officer said this week, ‘you could literally get caught stealing $949 worth of stuff a day and it never becomes a felony.’ ”

Here in Mendoland we’re better off than most counties when it comes to basic and essential enforcement of the law, but statewide the mainstream media and a majority of politicians have been oblivious until now of all the chaos common folks have been forced to endure with some of the bone-headed “reforms” of the criminal justice system.

So what’s the answer? Well, the litmus test is you know you’re on the wrong track if public safety and the order of society is threatened or actually worsened because of so-called criminal justice “reforms.”

We have more than enough problems in these times we live, so why create any more for ourselves.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.

The Marina Times, a newspaper that does the best investigative reporting in San Francisco, just reported, In late October, Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman announced they were working with the sheriff and the Adult Probation Department to make changes to the city’s electronic monitoring program.

The use of electronic monitoring to reduce incarceration has expanded dramatically in the past four years. “The percentage of individuals out of custody and on alternative forms of incarceration like electronic monitoring increased from 37 percent in 2016 to 63 percent in 2020,” according to the mayor’s office.

However, the intended deterrent effect of the electronic monitoring has fallen short. “One out of every three people on pretrial electronic monitoring in San Francisco removes their ankle monitor or commits other crimes,” said Mandelman. “If one out of every three cells in our jail had broken locks we would do something about it.” He said the city needed to continue investing in alternatives to incarceration and ensure the effectiveness of those alternatives.

In response to a letter from Mandelman, the sheriff’s office released information showing a serious deficiency in the program. During the past year, 381 persons on electronic monitoring failed to comply with the terms of their release; 160 failed two times, 66 failed three times, 27 failed four times, four failed five times, three failed six times, two failed seven times, and one person failed nine times. In addition, many released on electronic monitoring were charged with such violent crimes as assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, child molestation, attempted murder, rape, robbery, and carrying a loaded gun.

There’s something else you should know.

Long before our time, people figured out that amongst us are others who, for whatever reason, are going to live outside the bounds of society, its order, and its laws.

That’s a decision that they make. But we also make a decision that that there are consequences for people who violate society’s laws.

As Nevius says in his piece, reform “is a noble thought. But when you have an offender getting arrested and convicted over and over, but serving almost no jail time, you’ve got a recipe for social disorder.”

The bottom line is that maintaining public safety and reasonable criminal justice reforms can be done at the same time, they aren’t mutually exclusive — and they keep our world in balance.