Smart on Crime, Not Tough on Crime

Our criminal justice system’s focus on mass incarceration and drug arrests eliminates more than 1.5 million adults arrested and convicted every year from eligibility for financial aid for higher education. Our policymakers have, in fact, instituted a form of de facto racial segregation through the implementation of many mandatory minimum laws. Communities of color continue to be incarcerated at disproportionately high rates as a direct result of state and federal drug sentencing guidelines. The misplaced priorities of over-incarceration and under-education have damaged the attainment of the American dream. This vision has always included social mobility, egalitarianism, and the enriching of our society through cultural diversity. The long-term results for California and the rest of America are the further polarization of our society and the continued disenfranchisement of those who need our help.

In the last few years we have made progress toward ending “tough-on-crime” policies and the resulting failures for a smart-on-crime approach. I proudly voted for Proposition 47 in my home state of California in November 2014. This law has allowed us to show the rest of the country what is possible when you invest in the right public programs. Arresting nonviolent drug offenders has always been an inhumane waste of time and resources. Our prisons are overcrowded, our criminal system is clogged, and countless nonviolent offenders are being subjected to unfair punishment and long prison sentences spent away from their families. Proposition 47 de-felonized many nonviolent drug possession charges, meaning many individuals qualify to change their record or sentence from a felony to a much less serious misdemeanor. We’re already beginning to see the positive results.

The monetary cost savings alone is noteworthy, especially when we compare our exorbitant prison costs with the amount we spend on school for our children. In 1994, yearly spending on K-12 students was just under $7,000 per student. In ten years, that yearly cost only increased by 18% to $8,219. During the same time period, prison inmate costs went from $32,933 to $60,032, an 82.3% increase.

Thanks to Prop 47, the money we’re saving on incarcerating people who don’t deserve to be there in the first place is being funneled back into more appropriate programs — community-level drug treatment and mental health services, programs to reduce school dropout rates, and trauma recovery services for crime victims.

Not only are we using our tax dollars for programs we can all agree are important, but those programs are working to reduce crime overall. As education and mental health services become more available, and as at-risk youth have more opportunities for growth, crime decreases, public safety improves, and the community prospers.

Prop 47 is also benefitting communities of color that have been ravaged by the War on Drugs. For over 40 years, unjust drug laws have oppressed minority communities by separating families and limiting opportunities for success. In California, 60% of the adult male population is nonwhite, but the adult male prison population is 75% nonwhite. Black and Latino residents across the U.S. are more likely to live in poverty and tend to have more poorly funded schools than White residents. Drug and other nonviolent felony convictions carry severe collateral consequences that prevent the formerly incarcerated from returning home to their families if they reside in public housing. Convictions greatly reduce employment opportunities and can limit access to higher education. Proposition 47 allows us to implement policies that re-prioritize strategies addressing the root causes of crime.

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office 2015–2016 Budget estimates a yearly savings of $100–200 million beginning in 2016–2017, but we’ve still got work to do. As of March 2015, California’s prisons were still at 136% of capacity. The effects of punitive drug laws are still creating a burden on our justice system, disenfranchising suffering communities, and costing taxpayers millions. Prop 47 gets us one giant leap closer to restoring safety and justice to our communities and fostering more equal opportunity for all our neighbors rather than a select few.

The successful implementation of Proposition 47 will continue to require changing the culture of “tough on crime” policing from law enforcement officers and district attorneys who come in contact with drug offenders, all the way through the criminal justice system. It’s not just corrections policy that should inform the question of what we should do with those convicted of criminal offenses. The savings resulting from the reduction of inmates can help us move the criminal justice system from an ineffective and harmful response to crime to a multi-disciplinary approach that takes into account the many socioeconomic factors that contribute to crime.