RivCo Officials Detail Crime-Busting Consequences Of Prop. 36

RIVERSIDE, CA — Public safety officials in Riverside County Wednesday hailed the passage of Proposition 36 on the statewide ballot as a "strong mandate" from voters to stiffen penalties for convicted thieves and drug traffickers, acknowledging the measure is not a "fix-all" for stopping crime, but a "step in the right direction."

"I'm pleased with the results. More than 70% of voters have spoken in favor of this," District Attorney Mike Hestrin said during a news briefing Wednesday in downtown Riverside. "Prop 36 puts teeth back into our criminal justice system. People are tired of rampant theft. People are aware the system is broken. Now criminals should consider themselves put on notice: We'll file felony charges and seek prison sentences where appropriate."

The proposition addresses what Hestrin, Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez, Sheriff Chad Bianco and Assemblyman Bill Essayli, R-Norco, cited as shortcomings in Proposition 47, approved by voters in 2014, which reduced a range of theft and drug offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. For thefts, the prop made most acts involving less than $950 in value misdemeanors.

The public safety officials said that allowance has hobbled law enforcement in pursuing time behind bars for even offenders who have perpetrated dozens of thefts.

"It pains me to hear from small business owners closing up because they can't afford to replace glass windows that have been broken on their property multiple times," Gonzalez said. "Prop 36 will be a remarkable change. Too many individuals choose to continue harming themselves or community members unless they're given a strong incentive to choose the path of rehabilitation."

Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said she became a supporter of the measure almost as soon as it was announced.

"Prop 36 is a step in the right direction and sends a strong message," she said. "It reaffirms commitment to accountability and consequences for repeat offenders, and it offers meaningful treatment incentives for those caught in the cycle of crime due to mental illness."

The proposition includes a provision that establishes a "treatment- mandated felony" charge for anyone with more than two theft convictions, even if they were misdemeanors.

"It's a strong mandate to change what we've been doing for the last 10 years," Hestrin said. "Prop 36 is not intended to fill prisons with drug addicts. The intent is to get addicts where they belong so they can get treatment. Drug sellers and traffickers ... can expect to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

Gonzalez said the treatment-mandated felony is a "legal means to make someone get treatment" when their main purpose behind perpetrating break- ins and thefts is to satisfy drug habits, or because they're mentally ill, or both.

If they don't comply with treatment diversion, "it becomes a jail- mandated felony," the police chief said.

"Sometimes the only treatment for a serial thief is prison," he said.

According to Hestrin, his office will be ready to file felony charges on offenders after they've passed the two-conviction threshold for theft convictions.

"They'll be eligible to serve time for that third qualifying theft," the district attorney said. "Because our jails are at capacity, they may not serve jail time in the county. For the fourth qualifying offense, the person will be eligible for prison. We'll be asking judges to send them to prison. When we get to four (theft) convictions ... our prosecutors will be standing up in court and saying, `this person needs to go to prison so they will stop victimizing business owners in Riverside County."'

Bianco said the overwhelming support for Prop 36 reflects the public's frustration with the "direction of the state Legislature and politicians who have caused this issue."

"The public feels exactly how I feel," the sheriff said. "For almost 20 years now, we've been moving in the wrong direction, and people are fed up. This is not a fix-all for California's public safety problems. We have a lot more to do to ensure the social experiment with public safety is drastically reversed. We need to hold people accountable who need to be held accountable."

Essayli called Prop 36 "a referendum on soft-on-crime policies that Sacramento (Democrats) have been pumping out."

"With the new convictions for serial thefts that will be occurring, we'll need more prison space," he said. "I'm calling on the governor to stop the closures of prisons."

The California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation announced in 2022 the goal of shuttering several correctional facilities, including Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe, to redirect resources.

—City News Service