Targeting Proposition 47 As Statewide Crime Rises

Sacramento, CA – A recent U.C. Berkeley/L.A. Times poll shows a majority of voters are in favor of changes to Prop. 47 that reduced some crimes to misdemeanors.

Assemblyman Jim Patterson, who is vying for the newly drawn District 8 Mother Lode Assembly Seat in the upcoming election, has introduced AB 1599 to repeal Proposition 47. It will be discussed at State Assembly Public Safety Committee hearings that begin this week.

If passed the bill would return the threshold for felony theft back to $400 instead of the current $950. It would also return numerous drug crimes back to felony status. Patterson believes a new poll shows Californians agree, stating, “By a margin of two to one, California’s are saying that the problem here is proposition 47. They would like to see changes in it. That’s why my colleagues and I have introduced the bill to repeal proposition 47 and go back to the time when these criminals spent time in prison. They weren’t let out to run rampant in our neighborhoods.”

Patterson highlighted these findings from the poll:

• 78% believe crime has risen statewide over the last year
• 65% said crime has increased locally
• 59% support changing Prop. 47 to let certain property crimes be prosecuted again as felonies
• 30% favor leaving the law unchanged

Proponents of the 2014 voter-passed Prop. 47 countered that the majority polled said they would support some changes to the law not a repeal of it. The poll conducted in mid-February of 4,460 voters has a margin of error of plus or minus of 3-percent.