Stanislaus County report discusses the first-year fallout from Proposition 47

Local law enforcement agencies have made fewer arrests, and there has been a sharp decrease in felony prosecutions since Proposition 47 became law more than a year ago.

Approved in November 2014, the statewide initiative reclassified many nonserious and nonviolent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. In addition, offenders with previous convictions for property and drug crimes can ask the court to reduce their sentences or clear their records.

Tuesday, Stanislaus County supervisors are scheduled to hear a report on the initial impacts from Proposition 47. The Sheriff’s Department, district attorney, public defender and Probation Department contributed to the 17-page report.

The report released Friday is inconclusive on the financial impacts on law enforcement and county agencies. In the meantime, supporters of the initiative say it has helped to clear the criminal records of disadvantaged residents, so they can work again and support their children.

Critics charge the initiative offers no justice for victims of crime. In addition, courts are debating whether offenders convicted of auto theft are eligible for lighter sentences under Prop. 47.

In Stanislaus County, the number of people arrested and booked in jail dropped in November 2014, the month that Prop. 47 took effect. That’s when officers began issuing citations for crimes such as shoplifting and drug violations.

Just short of 6,500 felony cases were submitted to the district attorney for review between November 2014 and October, compared with 10,600 in the previous year, almost a 40 percent decrease. The district attorney filed charges in about 4,100 felony cases in the first year under Prop. 47, down from 5,800 the previous year.

While felony prosecutions in the county are down 30 percent, misdemeanor cases are up 10 percent, the report says. The total number of cases reviewed by the district attorney has fallen by 12 percent, and prosecutors have filed about 6 percent fewer cases in court.

District Attorney Birgit Fladager said she believes people given citations for property crimes are reoffending more quickly, because they are not spending any time behind bars. Before the passage of Proposition 47, those defendants would typically spend 10 to 30 days in jail while their cases were heard in court, she said.

In Stanislaus County, about 3,700 cases have been reclassified or reconsidered for adult offenders under Prop. 47, and 50 petitions have been filed for juvenile cases.

Those petitions are filed for people, including prison inmates, who want to reduce felony convictions, and have expanded the workload for the district attorney, county probation and the public defender’s office. The public defender hired a contract attorney to process petitions for prison and jail inmates and the hundreds of people who daily called the office seeking relief.

But the impact has been partially offset by the lower number of cases coming into the justice system, the report says.

According to the report, it’s premature to measure Prop. 47’s financial impact on county jail and juvenile detention. Although backers of the initiative anticipated state cost savings from the reduced population in California prisons, the “financial impacts to local jail systems will vary from community to community,” the report says.

The initiative specified that prison cost savings be devoted to grant programs for mental health and substance abuse treatment, school programs to reduce truancy and the drop-out rate, and services for victims of traumatic crime.

As fewer adults are booked in county jail, the Sheriff’s Department has not been so generous with early-release credits for inmates. Jail crowding had created pressure to release inmates to free up beds, but offenders now serve a larger percentage of their time, so they can benefit from in-custody drug counseling or rehabilitation programs, Sheriff Adam Christianson said.

On average, inmates serve 54 percent of their time, up from 33 percent before Proposition 47. The average time in jail for inmates has increased from 200 days to 243 days.

Christianson said participation in alternative work programs has declined because of the reduced emphasis on incarceration in criminal justice. It started with statewide public safety realignment in 2011 and continues with the lighter penalties under Proposition 47, the sheriff said.

“Our out-of-custody (drug treatment) programs have declined in attendance and success,” Christianson said. “If there is no incentive to participate and succeed to stay out of jail – if possession of narcotics is a misdemeanor – there is no reason for them to stay in the program.”

Christianson suggested the ramifications of Prop. 47 won’t be known for four or five years.

The public defender’s office has a different view. Low-level offenders are being taken out of jail, where they probably don’t belong, creating space for more serious offenders who need to stay longer, said Sonny Sandhu, chief deputy public defender for Stanislaus County.

Soon after passage of the initiative, state prison officials sent a list of about 400 prison inmates from Stanislaus County who likely were eligible for reduced sentences and release. The public defender worked on the petitions, and about 90 percent of the inmates were released after judges approved the requests, Sandhu said.

The public defender held a seminar in west Modesto last year on filing petitions under Prop. 47.

“One thing we saw was excitement among many people in the community, which has lost so many people to incarceration who probably don’t belong there,” Sandhu said. Today, there is a lot of interest in petitions to clear felony convictions from individuals’ records so they can work again and support their children, he said.

Fladager said her office reviews petitions and case files for anything that disqualifies the person under Prop. 47. So far, she is not aware of any reduced convictions for auto thefts committed in Modesto. The city has previously topped the national list for stolen cars.

Two state appellate courts have disagreed on whether auto theft qualifies under the initiative. Fladager said one court ruled it is covered by Prop. 47 if the stolen vehicle was worth less than $950. But local judges have taken the opposite view.

“We have taken the position that auto theft should not fall under Proposition 47. As far as I know, we have not lost the argument yet,” Fladager said.

Sandhu said he expects the state Supreme Court will decide the question.

The Board of Supervisors meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the basement chamber of Tenth Street Place, at 1010 10th St., Modesto.

This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Stanislaus County report discusses the first-year fallout from Proposition 47."