Seminar on Prop 47 & 48

The following article was written by Colonel Tom Cagley, who attended the forum for Prop 47 and 48:

UC Irvine, December 8, 2016

Senator John Moorlach held a seminar at UCI on December 8th. The Seminar was about Prop 47 and Prop 57, with side references to AB 109 and the effects these propositions and bills have had on criminal activity in the years since passage.

Panelists were Magnus Lofstrom (Public Policy Institute of California), Marisa Arrona (Californians for Safety & Justice), Chris Bieber (Orange County Probation), Mike Hamel (Chief of Police, Irvine), Senator Robert Hertzberg (California State Senate District 18) Don Barnes (Orange County Undersheriff), Carroll Seron (University of California Irvine), and Drew Soderborg (Legislative Analyst’s Office). The two panel discussions were moderated by Greg Lucas, State Librarian of California.

Space prohibits covering the two and one half hour discussion, but it was very informative. I was especially impressed with Chief Hamel and Undersheriff Barnes. Since the topic dealt with criminals, these gentlemen are on the front lines of the issues and challenges.

I was less impressed with Hertzberg and Seron. They both seemed more interested in following the politically correct path of finding fault with the system because more minorities are arrested, and are less able to be released from jail because of economic conditions.

Hertzberg must have been on another planet for the past several years. He blamed a lot of the problems with crime in California on Republicans. Apparently he has been unaware of the fact the Democrats control this state from top to bottom, including the General Assembly.

Of significance, according to Hamel, there has been an increase in property crime of more than 20 percent in Orange County since passage of Prop 47. He said there is a need for better programs to help some of these people get out of their cycle of criminal activity. He cited one case where a man (Irvine) has been arrested 14 times in a six-month period, twice on the same day. In another case, a man had been arrested 17 times in a six-month period.

There are a shortage of beds for people needing mental help, and this puts a strain on law enforcement because they have to find some place to take people they find on the street that are in need of mental health help.

Arrona said that New Orleans (where she was before coming here) worked on helping retailers, especially convenience and liquor stores, how to prevent shoplifting. She did not go into detail on this, but her point was people who tend to be victims need to change the habits that can make them a victim.

Undersheriff Barnes noted how difficult it is to gather significant data, as all 58 counties in California have different methodologies for gathering information.

Hertzberg leaped on GOP lawmakers for wanting to enhance punishment and incarcerate more people breaking the law. He said if they were to incarcerate more that more private prisons would be needed and it costs $29,000 per year to use private prisons compared to $12,000 in state facilities.

Barnes noted that the Sheriff’s Department started the fiscal year with a $16 million shortfall. He also said that the social costs of a crime (burglary) averages about $13,000 per incident.

Although Prop 57 was presented to the voters as a money saver, Hertzberg said he does not believe there will be any savings. Barnes said he supports legislation that would require ‘truth in advertising” when putting propositions before the voters. That got the only round of applause from the audience.

Barnes noted that drug trafficking in Orange County has increased by 300 percent. (I took that to mean since Prop 47, but am not certain.) Barnes also said that without behavior modification, nothing will change. He also noted that 1/3 of sexual assaults go unreported because of stigma.

Seron said that California incarceration is driven by race and disproportionate to communities of color. Hertzberg piggybacked on that by saying that a person might be arrested for a broken taillight, implying that this would happen in ‘communities of color.’

Barnes noted that prior to a Supreme Court decision saying that California violated a defendant’s Eighth Amendment rights, there was less crime. The reason? The criminal were locked up.