California voters firmly rejected Proposition 20, a ballot measure that would have rolled back key portions of recent criminal justice reforms.
The results illustrate the drastic shift in public opinion on crime and punishment over the past two decades, and indicate that voters do not feel California’s efforts are too extreme in reducing prison and jail populations and redirecting money into rehabilitation programs.
Criminal justice reform advocates hailed the defeat of what they called “the prison spending scam.”
“[Voters] support the reforms that we’ve made, and they actually want us to keep moving toward rehabilitation … instead of just mindlessly locking up more and more people for nonviolent crime,” said Dan Newman, a consultant for the No on Prop. 20 campaign.
Proposition 20, backed by police and prosecutors, was aimed at making it easier to put some people in jail for theft, while making it harder for thousands of state prisoners to qualify for parole consideration. It also would have expanded DNA collection of people convicted of some misdemeanors.