In his January State of the City address, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said we “should be locking up criminals, not laundry detergent,” an unduly callous statement meant to discredit Proposition 47, which passed into law in 2014 with the support of 55 percent of San Diego’s voters. Ironically, in the same speech, Gloria proudly declared San Diego “one of the safest large cities in America.” Two months later, he praised the two-year downward trend in San Diego’s crime rate.
Mayor Gloria should give credit where credit is due. In the decade since its passage, Proposition 47, also known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, has been a social and fiscal game-changer for our region and state. The truth is, Proposition 47 is a success for all Californians.
Voters passed Proposition 47 on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision ordering California to reduce its prison population due to violations of the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause. Before Proposition 47, California prisons were operating at nearly double their capacity. By reclassifying low-level, nonviolent offenses like drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, Proposition 47 has helped reduce overcrowding and bring the state into compliance with constitutional standards. This is significant social progress as the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world and San Diego County’s incarceration rate, while not the highest in California, is higher than the world average and most major international cities.
Californians pay a staggering $132,860 to incarcerate one person for one year. Proposition 47 redirects taxpayer dollars from the exorbitant costs of incarceration to community-based programs offering housing assistance, employment support, treatment for mental health and substance use issues, and educational programs for K-12 public school students. Instead of wasting public resources on needless incarceration, Proposition 47 has redirected an impressive $800 million to help reduce offenses, stop repeat offenses, and support individuals in gaining the tools and resources they need to thrive. To date, San Diego County has received $12 million in redirected funds and the Oceanside Unified School District was granted almost $1 million in 2016 for a youth second chance program.
Proposition 47 is a public safety measure as well as a legal reform measure. This law has fostered safer communities for everyone by addressing many root causes of involvement in the criminal legal system.
A grant evaluation released in 2024 found that in addition to significantly reducing racial disparities across the criminal legal system, recidivism rates for people enrolled in Proposition 47 grant-funded services were “more than two times lower than those traditionally incarcerated by the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.” The grant evaluation also found that for people who completed the program, homelessness fell 60 percent, and unemployment dropped50 percent.
“These results continue to indicate that Proposition 47 is delivering the results voters demanded — safer communities where individuals who commit low-level crimes are directed to housing, employment, mental health and substance use services instead of prison sentences,” said the State and Community Corrections Board Chair Linda Penner. “California should continue to build on this progress — investing in efforts that are effective in both reducing incarceration and improving public safety.”
Calls for increased criminalization largely stem from the fabricated “shoplifting crisis” narrative perpetuated by Mayor Gloria and other Proposition 47 detractors. In reality, numerous reports have debunked claims of rising retail crime. Property crime, including burglary and robbery, is down 18 percent in the City of San Diego compared to a three-year average. Shoplifting rates in San Diego County have decreased by 21 percent from 2019 to 2022. To undo Proposition 47’s regional and statewide progress based on false narratives would be knowingly irresponsible and harmful.
Criminalization is a simplistic and ineffective approach that exacerbates the burdens faced by many San Diegans, including poverty, substance use and mental health needs, as well as inflation and the high cost of living. Instead of addressing these societal problems, criminalization merely hides them from view and funnels the most impacted individuals into a punitive legal system that fails to offer real solutions, making their struggles even more challenging to overcome. Proposition 47, by contrast, invests in community-based programs that tackle societal problems head-on.
Don’t be fooled. Proposition 47 is a success for all Californians. It’s progress is worth defending.
Sigua is a senior policy advocate at the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties and Geneviéve Jones-Wright is executive director of Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance.
No offense, but your argument has almost zero basis in fact. I can share video after video after video of groups of people braking into stores, or just outright waling in and taking stuff off of shelves in CA. Why? Because they know under a certain dollar amount is a misdemeaner and they are not going to jail over that. Mayor Todd Gloria had it correct when he said lock the criminals up and not the products on the shelf. If you walk into a Wal Mart or Target today in CA, more than half of their items are locked up. They are not locking these up because of the honest citizen. The criminals run the stores now, and they know there is no punishment so they can keep on doing it. I interviewed a young man for a job that paid $22 an hour, and he stated very matter of factly that he can make more than that in shoplifting. This is a ridiculous law that should be repealed and start putting criminals where they belong, behind bars.
I live in the Marina district in San Diego next door to Gaslamp. A Target that was about to open in the East Village just pulled out of it’s pending lease. The B street corridor just had it’s first corporate high rise bankruptcy amongst what is expected to be the entire corridor. To walk through the core of the central area of Gaslamp / East Village is nothing less than depressing and even dangerous. Locals refer to is as “Thunderdome” after the 1980’s post apocalyptic Mad Max movie franchise in which “two men enter but only one man leaves”.
Homelessness due to lack of affordable housing, drug addiction and lack of mental healthcare do not mix with Propostion 47. If we did not already have this Clockwork Orange of a mess to deal with, sure, lets make this social experiment but right now, we need a NARC police squad making street busts (I have never seen one street arrest). We need a sanitation squad scooping up human feces and spraying down the sidewalk with bleach. We need outreach staff loading mental patients into an ambulet to be taken to the brand new mental care facility (as one doesn’t currently exist). After that, then come talk to me about prop 47.
I also completely disagree with this argument. Proposition 47 needs repealed. We can see with our own eyes on our own streets this article is not based on facts, it’s a whimsical idea at best.
Am sorry
The author leaves readers with the impression that California’s per prisoner incarceration cost is “normal” at $132,860. But the national average incarceration is FAR lower. Mississippi is the least expensive at $18,400. Texas is $25,900.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/prison-spending-by-state
Our CA rate is so ridiculously high because the state emptied out many of its prisons but kept the CA highly-paid union guards on the payroll.
But to be fair, CA is owned and operated by the Public Employee Labor Unions, so this is S.O.P. for the Golden State.
Also, to be fair, we need to remember that the ACLU wants most criminals to be free to roam the land. Hence, by ACLU standards, Prop 47 has been a smashing (sorry) success.
Whoever wrote this is either delusional or they are just outright lying. Criminalizing self-defense while also empowering criminals is the opposite of what government should be doing. The author(s) have listed one excuse after another for criminal behavior. Thanks to Richard Rider for adding some context to the cost of incarceration. If prisons are already full of criminals, then build 1 or 2 more prisons. Moreover, prosecuting for shoplifting doesn’t need to involve prison time to be effective. The consequences for getting caught shoplifting need to be uncomfortable to discourage the behavior, but that doesn’t necessarily mean jail or prison time. Probation, community service, and counseling can be effective, but there has to be consequences that include arrest and prosecution.