The debate over a controversial proposition is pitting San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan against Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Dealing with crime and punishment in California has been an evolving process. In 2012, voters approved the “Three strikes” law, putting offenders in prison for a third felony regardless of the crime.
But prison populations went up and in 2014, voters approved Proposition 47, a ballot initiative that changed a lot of nonviolent felonies including shoplifting, petty theft and minor drug offenses to misdemeanors.
San Jose mayor Matt Mahan said Proposition 47 went too far.
Mahan went to Sacramento on Wednesday, joining with other local nonpartisan leaders pushing for Proposition 36, which increases prison time for certain drug related crimes, makes certain drug offenses, treatment mandated felonies, all with the idea drug use, especially of fentanyl leads to other crimes.
Mahan said the key is targeting repeat offenders and focusing on treatment.
“There has to be accountability, there has to be consequences for committing crimes," he said. "But those consequences can be humane, they can be uplifting, and they can get people who desperately need treatment into treatment. We can go from an era of mass incarceration to an era of mass treatment."
Newsom is among those who have come out against Prop 36, calling it a drug reform that will only continue to fuel the state's prison overcrowding crisis.
A community watchdog group, Silicon Valley De-Bug, reluctantly agrees with the governor. They said Prop 36 would take away savings garnered from Prop 47 that funds the very treatment programs people arrested would need.
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“We know the real issues that our community needs, particularly here in San Jose and Silicon Valley,” said Raj Jayadev, executive director of Silicon Valley De-Bug. “It’s housing, it’s economic opportunity, it’s mental health treatments, substance abuse treatments. Prop 36 removes those staples of solutions and replaces it with a jail cell, a prison cell and a record of incarceration.”
The fight over Prop 36 has become very political with groups and individuals often on the same side of the political aisle such as Mahan and Newsom, arguing over the costs and perceived benefits, making it one of the more complex issues being put before voters in November.
