SACRAMENTO – An initiative that would amend Proposition 47 by restoring penalties for serial thieves and treatment requirements for addicts has qualified for the November ballot, the California Secretary of State’s office announced Tuesday afternoon.
The measure – known as the “Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act” – needed at least 601,317 projected valid signatures to become eligible by random sampling, and it exceeded that threshold, the office said in a news release.
The office is slated to certify the initiative for the Nov. 5 general election later this month.
The measure’s backers include small businesses owners, social justice leaders and drug victim families.
They maintain that while Prop. 47 has achieved notable success in making the state’s criminal justice system more equitable, it has led to unintended consequences, including repeat and often more organized retail theft, inner-city store closings and difficulty convincing people to seek drug and mental health treatment.
Passed in 2014, the law reduced most drug possession and property crimes valued at $950 or less to misdemeanors and allowed for re-sentencing of those convicted of felonies for those offenses. The aim was to depopulate overcrowded prisons and address social justice concerns.
Prop. 47 was backed by former San Jose and San Diego police Chief William Lansdowne, former San Francisco and now Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and then-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, now the state’s governor.
An effort to strengthen some of the penalties reduced by the law – Proposition 20 in 2020 – failed.
Supporters of the new initiative say it would amend but not repeal Prop 47. The measure would make a third conviction for retail theft a felony, regardless of the amount stolen. In addition, it would add penalties for dealing fentanyl – a cheap and deadly synthetic opioid – and provide incentives for convicted addicts to seek treatment.
Staff writer John Woolfolk contributed to this report.