Ever since California started embracing changes to its criminal sentencing system a decade ago, police and prosecutors have pushed back, arguing that the reforms went too far and undermined public safety, and that voters who approved them didn’t really know what they were doing.
This year, opponents of reform went back to the electorate with Proposition 20, which would have made it easier to put some people in jail for theft, while making it harder for thousands of state prisoners to qualify for parole consideration.
“And it wasn’t even close,” said Kate Chatfield, policy director at the pro-reform Justice Collaborative.
She’s right — Proposition 20 has been trailing by double digits since Tuesday as the ballots continue to be tallied.
Chatfield says supporters of the measure — largely law enforcement groups — used the traditional law and order playbook, which worked in decades past.
“They used all their usual cards in the deck. You know, ‘crime is increasing.’ The fear-based mailers, the phony arguments,” she said.
“The voters saw through them. I mean, the voters just were not persuaded,” Chatfield added. “And that to me was very, very hopeful that we may have turned this corner.”
Proposition 20 wasn’t the only big win. Statewide, voters also gave people on parole the right to vote. And at the local level, a half dozen Bay Area cities passed police accountability measures.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the progressive district attorney candidate, George Gascón, appears to have defeated his rival, current District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who was backed by law enforcement.
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— Marisa Lagos (@mlagos)