The Proposition 47 law was passed in the Nov. 4 election last year and several organizations from Los Angeles County and the Santa Clarita Valley have seen some changes.
These organizations include the courts, law enforcement and bail bonds companies to name a few.
“We’ve probably seen a 25 percent decrease in the number of clients that we work with,” said Jeff Chavez, vice president of All American Bail Bonds in Santa Clarita. “All of those clients we were bailing out at about $10,000 each are not going to require our services.
This past December was the slowest in All American Bail Bonds in Santa Clarita’s 10-year history, he said.
“I personally believe it’s due to Prop. 47,” he said.
Shoplifting; check forgery for less than $950; grand theft of any form for less than $950; receiving stolen property for the same amount; and possession of GHB, heroin, concentrated cannabis, methamphetamine, ecstasy, cocaine and other drug charges were all reduced from felonies to misdemeanors when Prop. 47 passed.
People convicted of these felonies in the past are now able to get their sentences reduced.
“Our overuse of incarceration for nonviolent offenses has failed to break the cycle of crime and wasted billions of dollars on ineffective incarceration of people convicted of nonviolent, non-serious offenses,” said Lenore Anderson, executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice and coauthor of Prop. 47. “This wastes money and means we have fewer resources to fight violent and serious crime — and invest in crime prevention.”
“Also, too often our approach to public safety has failed to look at the reasons why someone commits a crime, such as drug addiction, mental health problems or lack of rehabilitation services provided after previous arrests,” Anderson added. “Prop. 47 aims to reverse this trend — and break the cycle of crime.”
Sixty-four percent of voters in Los Angeles County were in favor of passing the proposition, Anderson said.
It’s is too soon to tell what the impacts have been on the courts and that while each district may be set up differently, the law applies equally to all Superior Courts in the State and thus Prop. 47 cases should be handled in a somewhat similar fashion taking into account that each bench officer is an independently elected constitutional officer, said Spokeswoman Mary Hearn.
“The future impact is reduced government waste and improved public safety strategies,” Anderson said. “Californians passed Proposition 47 because it prioritizes scarce law enforcement resources for serious and violent crime, while investing new state and local cost-savings into prevention.”
While Prop. 47 will give more money to mental health and drug addiction treatment, it does not mandate someone who has been charged with a drug possession misdemeanor to get help, Chavez said. Before Prop. 47, a person charged with a drug possession felony would have been mandated to go to a drug addiction rehabilitation center.
Chavez feels that those people are charged with the misdemeanors will forget and fail to meet their court because nobody reminded them.
“This is my belief — in the coming months, we will see an increase in warrants and a great number of all those won’t go to court. All those individuals don’t have someone saying go to court,” Chavez said. “They lose the bail bondsman guarantee. A lot of people don’t like us, but we do play an important role. You don’t go to court, I go out of business.”
For more information about Prop. 47 read the KHTS AM 1220 story or visit the Secretary of State’s website.
“I think this law will have to change,” Chavez said. “All American Bail Bonds in Santa Clarita will be fine, we’re a big company and we’ll get through this. My concern is how all those individuals who aren’t getting the rehabilitation help that they need are going to impact the community.”
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