California overwhelming votes for tough(er) on crime ballot measure

As blue as CA is, even they seem sick of the smash and grab “hey, the businesses have insurance so it’s okay” type of crime. The measure passed with about 70% of the vote.

This is from the LA Times

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California voters on Tuesday approved a November ballot measure that will impose stricter penalties for repeat theft and crimes involving fentanyl, steering away from recent progressive policies that critics blamed for increased lawlessness.
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Proposition 36 will make it a felony for someone to steal merchandise of any value after two previous offenses and can lead to longer jail or prison sentences.

The ballot measure also allows judges to sentence convicted drug dealers who traffic in large quantities of hard drugs, including fentanyl, or who are armed with a gun while trafficking the drugs to state prison instead of county jails. It will also create a “treatment-mandated felony” as a new category of crime, by giving some eligible drug offenders an option for treatment instead of jail time.

The measure undoes key parts of a 2014 ballot measure, Proposition 47, which voters overwhelmingly passed during a time when the state Democratic leaders sought reverse what they argued was an ineffective tough-on-crime era that swelled the state’s prison population to unconstitutional levels.
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Supporters of the measure spent $16.23 million. Early funders included Walmart, Home Depot and Target. Others included the California Republican Party, which contributed $1 million. Mayors of big cities including San Francisco, San José and San Diego supported the measure, as did prosecutors and law enforcement leaders, including the California District Attorneys Assn. and the California Sheriff’s Assn.

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