Outside guests and young incarcerated men flocked to Curtis “Wall Street” Carroll’s Financial Education Class to hear him translate investment jargon into terms they understand.
Up-and-coming filmmaker Taylor Laslie drove up from Los Angeles to check out the class. She heard about it from a Life of the Law podcast.
Despite being a 2012 Yale graduate, she knew nothing about investing.
“Yeah, I am one of the people who thinks about finance as being an elite game,” said Laslie. “My parents are lawyers and I am well-educated but I never thought about stocks, finance, and assets management. I’m similar to a bunch of the guys starting out in this program.”
Her lack of investing knowledge is the norm for Black people. Only 25 percent of Black households have over $10,000 saved for retirement, compared to about double that percent of White people, according to the telecast Nightly Business News.
“That means the odds are you will never be financially sound,” said Carroll. “You’re screwed…so what’s your alterative – drugs, robbery? When I heard that, I almost cried.”
Echoing the statistics of non-stock-owning African-Americans were other guests at the March 10 class, including Mario Catley, author of Why Not You: Nine Steps to Reprogramming Your Family’s Health, and his cousin, stay-at-home mother Travina Catley.
“I want to get educated; If I’m educated, I’ll be able to educate others as well,” said Travina. “This is something that we didn’t grow up learning, so it would be nice to be able to help others, so they grow up financially free as well.”
Carroll gained national fame for teaching fellow-incarcerated men the money management and investing skills he developed in prison after learning how to read and studying the stock market.
Now his classes are changing the landscape of investors. Of the 50 incarcerated men who braved the rain to attend, at least 17 were men under 25 years old.
Carroll commanded the attention of the class with his candid dialogue and use of prison analogies.
“It’s not about the money; it’s about style of management,” said Carroll. “If you can’t manage cookies and chips … then you can’t manage money. We are trying to change that tide. You can’t keep your mom from going to a home … you are broke. It ain’t your choice. We ain’t even in a position to take care of our elderly.”
Robert A. Bagwell, a 19-year-old Hispanic student with VL tattooed on his face, said “It’s fairly simple. It’s not that hard to understand the way they are teaching it.”
Laslie said, “Wall Street’s ability to take seemingly scary financial situations and turn them into understandable terms is incredible, because teaching is a really hard thing to do. It says a lot about his patience and passion.”
Joe Hancock, Carroll’s assistant teacher, handed out small packs of cookies to youngsters who could tell him what a P/E ratio is.
Carroll explained why he uses unconventional methods with his younger students. “The same old status quo doesn’t work. I’m here (in prison, so for him) the battle was lost. We’ll lose the war if we don’t do something different. It took me 10 years to realize I needed to make some changes. We have to find a faster pace to get them (young students) to see the need to make a change.”
Carroll also instructed the class on how to evaluate when a disaster could mean a company’s stock is undervalued.
“I find value by going into the storms, because people that run from a storm leave all their stuff behind,” said Carroll. “Oil is the crisis which means oil is the value. For the people in the streets, they love it because oil is cheap. With money they are saving, they are thinking of buying a new car…they are consumers. They aren’t thinking about benefiting from the very thing that is saving them money – lower oil stock prices.”
The San Quentin Prison Report, the prison’s TV-crew, filmed the class for a teaching tool in other places.
“It seems like it is a blessing that this gentleman has gotten the opportunity to educate himself in the system, and now he’s educating others,” said Catley.
More information about Curtis “Wall Street” Carroll can be found at www.wallstreetfeel.com
Archives for May 2016
CDCR’s New Secretary Plans Rehabilitative Efforts
California’s new prison boss says he plans major changes to boost rehabilitation efforts and cut back on inmate abuses.
Scott Kernan said altering the prison culture is his top priority as the new secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, The Associated Press reported on Feb. 10.
It’s an us-against-them culture that often pits prison guards against inmates and outsiders, Kernan told the AP in an interview.
Kernan, 55, worked his way up through management starting as a correctional officer in 1983.
According to the AP, Kernan reported the prisons are less crowded, and state policy-makers are emphasizing inmate rehabilitation.
To accomplish this, Kernan wants training for rank-and-file correctional officers, leadership programs for supervisors, and a search for methods that have worked in other states.
This follows a scathing report by Inspector General Robert Barton, who says the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which is the guards’ union, “encouraging a code of silence.”
The Inspector General report found that guards at High Desert State Prison had created a culture of racism and used a startling amount of force against inmates, among many other problems.
The new training will include stress management and diversity classes for all employees and a national executive training class for wardens, Kernan said.
“The more training officers have, the better suited they are to contributing to a better correctional system,” said Nichol Gomez-Pryde, a spokeswoman for the guards’ union.
The union, however, filed suit against the department and the Inspector General’s Office over the months-long investigation at High Desert.
Kerman also said California is on its way toward regaining control over its prison medical system. CDCR lost control of its medical department more than 10 years ago by federal court order due to inadequate prisoner care.
The following Q&A with Secretary Kernan was provided by the CDCR’s Public Information Office on Feb. 23:
Q. What do you see in store for CDCR staff?
A. I see an evolving role for all CDCR staff in a fast-changing criminal justice system. The expectation of staff to singularly keep an inmate, ward, or parolee behind bars is evolving to an expectation that all staff be professional role models and participate in the rehabilitation process. We have to understand the incredibly difficult environment that staff work under each day and give them the training and tools to protect public safety, emotionally survive themselves, while also changing the lives of the inmates under our charge. That is public safety at its core.
We cannot tolerate abuse or bias toward inmates just as we can’t tolerate abuse, violence, and bias from inmates against other inmates or staff. I have difficulty accepting when our critics paint us with a broad brush of being insensitive, biased, racist, and abusive. But I also challenge us to not paint the same broad brush toward inmates. I know that a vast majority of staff come to work each day and do the right thing. We have to figure out how to continue to evolve our profession and help an inmate who will ultimately be our neighbor.
Q. What challenges are there in managing inmates after all the population reduction measures?
A. The monumental shift in criminal justice practices in the last five years has greatly impacted our population demographics. We have a tougher inmate with greater supervision needs and more complex challenges that require response if we are going to protect public safety. No matter that complexity, 90 percent-plus of inmates complete their sentence and are released to our communities.
Our challenge is to address the individual inmate’s criminal thinking and give them the skills to not perpetuate their criminality and create more victims. If we did that 20, 30, 90 percent of the time, think of the victims we would save, the money California taxpayers would save, and the lives we would change.
Q. How do you see CDCR’s rehabilitation efforts working – both inside and outside the walls?
A. Inside, we rebounded from significant cuts in our in-prison educational and Career Technical Education (CTE) programs. We hired teachers and vocational instructors, updated curriculum, invested in learning technologies, and expanded college education programs throughout the system. Our Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA) expanded cooperative agreements with the private sector and implemented a number of cutting-edge programs that are both profitable and rehabilitative.
I will see that we build on the improvements and expand these programs. The evidence clearly shows that an inmate with an education, CTE certificate, or experience in a field that is transferable to the private sector is more successful.
Outside, CDCR is taking a larger role in coordinating with federal, state and local agencies to supervise and program offenders to prepare them for transition to society. We are building on our existing collaboration with agencies and developing new partnerships. I see the partnerships addressing housing and employment needs, access to medical and mental health care, transitional services for long-term offenders, and re-entry services for offenders preparing for release.
Q. What can CDCR do to further reduce recidivism?
A. The public and private sectors are implementing promising and innovative programs that are evidence-based and creating results in reducing recidivism. CDCR is tapping into these resources. I am open to innovative and creative ways to impact our inmate population positively. We will once again strive to be a national leader in the corrections industry by being open to change, listening to what works, and shaping corrections policy.
Q. You have an extensive background with the agency. How do you see that helping you do your job?
A. I spent nearly 30 years in CDCR and worked from a Correctional Officer to my current appointment as Secretary. I remember living with my mom at San Quentin as she pioneered the female role in a previously male-dominated system. She influenced my great love for corrections and all the employees that are dedicated to the department. I made plenty of mistakes in my career and learned from them all.
I am humbled to be appointed to this leadership position and strive every day to improve our organization. I’m extremely proud of the work we do and understand that we must continue to evolve and expand our strategies to improve prison operations and public safety. I am positive about the future and our contribution to the larger criminal justice system.
A Look at Peace Day’s History
The San Quentin Day of Peace committee was established to show fellow inmates ways to reject violence and support peace. The tradition continued May 7.
In 2006, interracial strife kept San Quentin State Prison on repeated lockdowns. Just before a yard event to celebrate Black history, all came to a head as a race riot erupted. Afterward, a multiracial group of men, most serving life sentences, came together and went to the administration to ask for a Day of Peace.
Each year the Day of Peace event draws support from high-ranking administrators supporting the efforts of peaceful-minded inmates.
“Open dialogue, violence prevention workshops, and the annual Day of Peace celebration serve as alternatives to violence and thus stem the tide of violence by saturating prisons as well as society with peace,” Chairman Chris Schumacher said at last year’s celebration.
In support of peace, hundreds of inmates wearing white T-shirts along with prison staffers and local community members walk together around the prison’s Lower Yard.
Supporters take to a makeshift stage in the middle of the yard to give speeches, recite poetry and entertain participants about what the event means to them.
During the last couple of events, The Native Hawaiian Religious Group of San Quentin entertained the walkers with dances. A Asian group called Heiwa Taiko, drummed for the walkers.
Music is provided by Bread & Roses each year.
Last year, the late folk singer Audrey Auld entertained the walkers with songs that were created in a workshop with inmates.
The sidewalk art contest is one of the biggest attractions to the Day of Peace, with more than 100 exhibits last year.
Josh Walkenhorst and Natalie Tovar bring Day of Peace participants snacks donated by Walkenhorst’s package vendor.
Over the years of the celebration, tables have been sprawled across the yard with various self-help groups giving out information about their organization. The groups include: Veterans Healing Veterans from the Inside Out; Ifa Foundation; No More Tears; The Work; Protestant Church; Project LA; TRUST; ELITE; Brother’s Keeper; SQ CARES; Native Hawaiians; Diabetes Project; Free to Succeed; REACH; Vietnam Veterans Group of San Quentin; Catholic Church; Centering Prayer; Restorative Justice; Karros; SQUIRES; TEDx, San Quentin Prison Report; Hope For Lifers; Guiding Rage Into Power; Freeman Capital; California Reentry Institute; Criminal and Gang Members Anonymous; Shakespeare at San Quentin; The Richmond Project; Alliance for Change; The Last Mile; Restoring Our Original True Selves; Kid Creating Awareness Together.
The Office of Neighborhood Safety [https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/271/Office-of-Neighborhood-Safety] techniques involve street outreach and transformative travel. ONS seeks out young men who are active firearm offenders to present credible alternatives to violence.
http://sanquentinnews.com/optionb-org-support-group-overcoming-effects-incarceration/
Richmond Gets Re-entry Center
By David Eugene Archer Sr.
Journalism Guild Writer
The new Richmond Re-entry Success Center is designed to help people recently released from prison or jail to get back on their feet, broadcast station KQED reports.
The center is located in downtown Richmond to be easily accessible to formerly incarcerated people, reported Sukey Lewis for KQED.
The center is key to the county’s plan to help keep people out of jail, said Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia. “If we can show this center works and these programs work, it’ll hopefully help build the case for investing more money in this type of work, it makes quality of life better for people who are released from jail and return, and it makes our community safer. So it’s a win-win.”
Center director Nicholas Alexander commented, “If we look back at how re-entry worked over the last decade, it’s really been unsuccessful…over half of people tend to go back into incarceration…the bar is pretty low, unfortunately.”
“Part of why re-entry work has failed is that people can be denied employment and housing based on their criminal history,” Alexander added. The center’s holistic approach is designed to help its clients navigate those legal barriers.
“As a whole we’re working more collaboratively, so less people are going to slip through the cracks.”
Kenneth McDowell spent five months behind bars on a felony assault charge. When he got out about a year ago, he had lost his housing and job. He said, “You have to gather your thoughts…and you have to just take every step a little step at a time.”
McDowell wants to become a chef, but he is working as a janitor at the center.
Fifteen years ago, Dameion King was serving a three-year sentence for firearm and drug possession. Now he’s a coach at the center.
The space is designed to make people looking for help feel more empowered. King said, “I know that when I came home, there was nothing like this,”
The center has helped about 100 people from across the county since opening in October 2015. Contra Costa has invested about $10 million in community-based re-entry services and $400,000 in the center, the March 10 story reported.
Supervisor Gioia said as more people hear about the center and get the help they need, he hopes it will become a model for the rest of the state.
The Office of Neighborhood Safety [https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/271/Office-of-Neighborhood-Safety] techniques involve street outreach and transformative travel. ONS seeks out young men who are active firearm offenders to present credible alternatives to violence.
San Quentin Nurse Heals One Inmate at a Time
By Tommy Bryant
Journalism Guild Writer
Diabetes is a serious problem at San Quentin and Elina Appleton has made it her mission to help those affected.
“Most inmates have no idea what the disease is or how it affects them until they start losing toes, feet, legs, kidneys, go blind, have heart attacks and/or strokes,” said Appleton a licensed vocational nurse best known as “Red.”
The legendary H-Unit nurse filters a hundred questions and symptoms a week. Often the answers indicate diabetes. About 20 San Quentin inmates in H-Unit are on regular insulin treatment.
“Inmates with borderline A1C blood levels approaching 6.9 are the most likely candidates for Type II diabetes,” adds Appleton. Avoiding painful amputation and expensive medical care is clearly a win-win for inmates and taxpayers, she says.
She teaches a 10-week class that covers diabetes issues including using the glucose meter for healthcare management. “Once inmates observe their glucose levels most begin to watch what they eat and exercise after meals,” states Appleton.
“This class helped me to see people cared more about my life than I did, so I’m grateful,” said Morlin Dorgan, an inmate at H-Unit. He added, “Some of my peers have gotten parts cut off.”
“I now have the power to take control of my diabetes,” said another student inmate.
Inmate Dennis Bagwell, a diabetic for 30 years, said, “I have…lost sight in one eye due to diabetic complications. It is up to individuals to take control of diabetes before diabetes takes control of them.”
“The tough part is keeping sugar levels down with limited diet options,” inmate Demetrius Verdun said. Inmate Robert Craig suggested, “Everyone on the planet should be taking a program like this, whether you are diabetic or not.”
Philip Budweiser said he used to ignore diabetes because “I was depressed…I used food and sweets as a crutch. I would like to thank all of the San Quentin medical staff for the help and continuous support they have afforded me.”
Appleton said she entered a 100-Mile bike ride sponsored by Tour de Cure American Diabetes Association, which raised $1 million for research on diabetes.
She said diabetes affects more than 24 million people in the United States.
Early Psychiatric Treatment Reduces Violent Incidents
By Thomas Gardner
Journalism Guild Writer
Early access to psychiatric care for people who are mentally ill may result in fewer violent incidents and hospitalizations, reports public television station KQED.
When the opportunity to treat beginning-stage mental health disorder is missed, then a sort of “snowball” dynamic can be set in motion, where violence and then more violence often is the result, according to Scott Shafer’s story for The Crime Report.
“At California’s five state psychiatric hospitals, patients are mostly criminal defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity or incompetent to stand trial,” said Shafer.
Many families of patients at the psychiatric hospitals feel that their loved ones are now finally getting the kind of treatment that they should have gotten before the tragedy happened that sent them there, Shafer reports.
“Advocates for the mentally ill say we need to make more treatment available in the community whenever possible – rather than in locked state hospitals like Napa,” Shafer said.
Recent high school graduate Shawn Brackin had become increasingly depressed and withdrawn. In what his family says was an attempt at “suicide by cop,” he walked into a local police station in 1995 in possession of a handgun, reported Shafer.
“He was wanting to die,” says Frank Brackin, Shawn’s father, who explained that his son had struggled since the age of 6, after having suffered a severe head injury as a result of being struck by a car, the report adds.
On that tragic day at the police station, Shawn was shot but survived; however, an officer was shot and killed accidentally by a fellow cop, the story noted.
“We need to make more treatment available in the community whenever possible”
The sentencing court recognized Shawn’s mental illness, and as part of a plea deal agreement, he was found “not guilty by reason of insanity.” Shawn has now been a patient at Napa State Psychiatric Hospital for nearly 20 years, Shafer reports.
Yet, as if trapped in a repetitive cycle, violence continues as part of his life. Shawn has suffered numerous assaults by other patients over the years while at Napa and now appears to have severe brain damage, said Shafer.
His parents have filed a lawsuit against the Napa hospital alleging negligence for not keeping their son safe, the report notes.
Violence remains an ongoing problem at the state psychiatric facilities, Shafer says. “Five years ago…a staff member (psychiatric technician Diana Gross) was murdered by a patient at Napa State Hospital.”
In response, many changes have been made, most of which are designed to protect staff. The hospital is now allowed to isolate the most dangerous patients, the report states.
Although most are minor, Napa has documented 1,800 assaults within the last year, according to the report.
“We have made tremendous progress in safety improvements and in mitigating violence at the hospital,” Napa Executive Director Dolly Matteucci told Shafer.
The mother of one Napa patient, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity after having killed a person in the Berkeley Hills, said her son is slowly getting better, adding, “It was only because of the sustained treatment we had through Napa,” Shafer reported.
“Despite the complaints and problems at California’s state mental hospitals, there’s a long waiting list to get into them,” Shafer notes.
DA Gascon’s Reforms Encounter Roadblocks
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon’s attempt to reform law enforcement is generating an all-out battle with police officers and deputy sheriffs, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Gascon is a former career cop, who ascended to become the city’s top prosecutor. He finds himself in an ugly dispute with Police Chief Greg Suhr and the police officers’ union. This animosity stems from how he proposes to set priorities for fighting crime in the city, according to the Chronicle.
The rift escalated when Gascon lambasted the Police Officers Association early this year in a statement to a blue ribbon panel of retired judges he used to investigate corruption in the San Francisco Police Department, the story said.
Gascon described the city’s law enforcement community as “an old boys club.” These remarks upset the rank-and-file, and many cops were angry about Gascon coming in and they never have let him forget it, the story continued.
“You have to understand, if you sit in my place and you see the trajectory of all this stuff, it’s been one thing after another,” Gascon said of police criticism.
Vivian Ho, who wrote the story, said the union representatives blasted back at him, denying that there is racism in their ranks. However, they accused Gascon at a dinner in 2010 of “making racially insensitive remarks.”
Retired police officer Chris Breen accused Gascon of making disparaging statements, after Gascon consumed a great deal of red wine, about Black officers he worked within the Los Angeles Police Department. This caused an African-American man seated nearby to ask him to quiet down because he was offending his family. Gascon denies the allegations.
To complicate matters, the Gascon recently charged three San Francisco deputy sheriffs with staging “a fight club” for jail inmates. That prompted the deputies’ union to join its police counterpart in accusing Gascon of padding his resume for higher office, Ho wrote.
Gascon told the reporter, “If I really wanted to look at future electability, would I be pissing off every single police union in the country and certainly in this state? If you’re looking for a position in the state, you want their support.”
This confrontation has created uproar in the city’s law enforcement community. “It’s not surprising that many cops feel that they’re being painted by a broad brush,” said Tony Ribera, a former San Francisco police chief and director of the International Institute of Law Enforcement Leadership at the University of San Francisco. Others applauded Gascon’s scrutiny at a time of heightened concern over racial profiling and police brutality, according to the story.
According to Ho’s story, “A prime source of friction emerged when Gascon co-authored Proposition 47, a ballot initiative that reduced six nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors. It passed in November 2014, and supporters and opponents are increasingly debating whether it’s helping people or spurring a surge of property crime.” The police union is sponsoring radio ads attacking Gascon for his practices.
Ho revealed that Gascon faces discord in his own office where he took control of that department after never prosecuting a single case.
There are some prosecutors who opposed their boss’ support of Proposition 47. Some think it was political grandstanding at the cost of their ability to do their jobs. The story said, “Their boss’ growing police reform efforts hold the potential to further complicate their relationships with police detectives and other officers, whom they rely upon to testify in court.”
At trial, police officers must disclose information that affects an assistant district attorney’s ability to prosecute the defendant. The competency of police and prosecutors to work together day-to-day has been bruised by “a lot of generalizations about the police department that are not fair to the rank-and-file,” said Ribera.
County Public Defender Jeff Adachi said, “You have the district attorney and the (police union) arguing about racism when five years ago, they wouldn’t even acknowledge it; that’s progress.”
Proposition 47 Being Blamed for Rise in Urban Crime
A number of sources have responded to Proposition 47 critics’ claims that reducing certain non-violent, non-serious offenses from felonies to misdemeanors is to blame for California’s 2015 increase in urban crime, The Washington Post reported.
Since it passed, critics of the initiative have abundantly tried to blame Proposition 47 for a rise in crime. However, former San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne told the Sacramento Bee, “There’s no data proving such a link.”
Two professors of criminology, law and society in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California at Irvine and a professor from Stanford Law School told the Post, “No such crime wave is likely to occur.”
Results from the study out of UC Irvine suggest the passage of Proposition 47 in 2014 “has had no effect on violent crimes, including homicide, rape, aggravated assault and robbery,” The Orange Country Register said.
When disputing this assumption, Charles E. Kubrin, Carroll Seron and Joan Petersilia told the Post, “California’s decision to cede authority over low-level offenders to its counties has been, for the most part, remarkably effective public policy and an extraordinarily rich case study in governance.”
Mike Males, Ph.D., senior research fellow at the Center of Juvenile and Criminal Justice, wrote in a research report, “If the reduction in local jail populations after Proposition 47 passed in November 2014, was responsible for the urban crime increase in early 2015, as some sources are arguing, then cities in counties with the largest reductions in jail populations in 2015 would show the biggest increases in crime; however, the data suggest this is not the case.”
A nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trusts study “found that raising the felony threshold has no impact on property crime or larceny rates. It also showed that states that increased their thresholds saw crime drop about the same amount as the 27 states that did not change their theft laws.” The threshold amount has no bearing on property crime and larceny rates.
Harsher penalties cost taxpayers a bundle to build and maintain prisons. “They do not automatically cut crime, just as lighter penalties don’t automatically invite more crime. Offenders act for a wide variety of reasons, and whether they might be convicted of a felony than a misdemeanor isn’t a large part of their thinking,” the Bee reported.
“In California, these latest results should help put the lie to flimsy claims that Proposition 47 has emboldened criminals and endangered the rest of us.
Remember, the same dire predictions of a crime surge accompanied the state’s 2011 adoption of realignment, which shifted responsibility for tens of thousand of felons from the state to the counties. And a similar chorus of warnings rang out when voters softened the state’s Three-Strike laws in 2012,” Lansdowne said.
“No such crime wave is likely to occur”
The Post reported the counties that invested in offender re-entry in the aftermath of realignment had better performances in terms of recidivism than counties that focused resources on enforcement.
“As other states and the federal government contemplate their own proposals for prison downsizing, they should take a close look at what these California counties are doing right,” the three professors concluded.
–Charles David Henry
San Francisco Sheriff Responds To Federal Immigration Policy
San Francisco’s newly elected sheriff says there are open enforcement questions about a new policy that gives federal immigration officials instead of local agencies priority over inmates wanted for deportation.
Sheriff Vicki Hennessy said she awaits details on how the policy will be enforced, The Associated Press reported Feb. 24. Former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, defeated in the last election, had said he was bound by city laws barring cooperation with federal immigration officials.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told the House Appropriations Committee that the Bureau of Prisons will first offer Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the option to take inmates facing deportation into custody.
Lynch said law enforcement agencies seeking to prosecute those inmates on other crimes will have to assure federal officials they will turn the inmates to ICE custody once their criminal cases have ended.
Lynch’s announcement was less than a year after a man wanted by immigration officials allegedly shot to death 32-year-old Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier. Bureau of Prison officials had transferred the suspect to San Francisco, where he was released instead of being deported for a sixth time, reported the AP.
Law Enforcement is Divided Over Prop. 47’s Implementation
By Tommy Bryant
Journalism Guild Writer
Many law enforcement personnel are resisting implementing Proposition 47, which reduced some drug felonies to misdemeanors, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
There is “a disappointing level of resistance,” the ACLU states in their report, as reported by Ben Poston in a Nov. 11 Los Angeles Times article.
“Some are making irresponsible and inaccurate statements linking Proposition 47 and crime,” the ACLU said. “Others are falsely claiming they are no longer able to arrest people for petty crimes or that a misdemeanor is not a ‘real penalty.’”
The ACLU strongly supported the California ballot proposition.
Some law enforcement officials, including Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell, blame a rise in crime on minor consequences for repeat offenders under Proposition 47, the Times reported.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department reported arrests for Proposition 47 offenses were down 43 percent.
Enrollments are down in drug treatment programs because a threat of a felony can no longer be used to persuade offenders to sign up, Los Angeles County authorities told Poston.
“I don’t know how they solve that problem,” said Marc Debbaudt, president of the Los Angeles County Association of Deputy District Attorneys.
Noticeable drops in jail population occurred after the passage of Proposition 47, but that number has since risen as county jails continue modifying early release and sentencing structures, said the ACLU.
Petty crimes are being dropped without charges at some jails, while others detain offenders, according to the ACLU study.
The jail population with misdemeanors doubled in Riverside County in March when compared to the same month a year before. During the same period San Bernardino’s misdemeanors dropped by one-quarter.
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