Opinion: Prop. 47 will bring some rationality to sentences for low-level crimes

Initiatives are a poor way to do lawmaking, especially when it comes to criminal sentencing laws. It’s partly how California got into its current over-incarceration mess, with ballot measures that were public responses to high-profile crimes.

But we’ve also seen that the preferred way -- the Legislature -- isn’t much better. Lawmakers like to write bills that respond to high-profile crimes with get-tough sentences, so they can look like men and women of action, and so they can curry favor with the public and with powerful law enforcement interest groups. Or even other interest groups.

The Legislature is supposed to be more flexible than the initiative process, but it only seems to be able to add crimes and increase sentences, not reduce them, and it never seems to be able to find useful amounts of money to prevent crime, to treat mentally ill and addicted offenders, even to help crime victims.

Lawmakers won’t create a sentencing commission to remove the panic and the politics from criminal sentencing. It’s the political equivalent of market failure. The regular legislative process won’t work. This is what the initiative system is for.

So we have Proposition 47, which will bring some rationality to sentences for low-level crimes. It is likely to slow the flood of low-level criminals into jail and prison, where the data tells us they get worse, not better; and the savings will go to programs for treatment, rehab, truancy prevention and victim services.

As messed up as lawmaking by ballot measure is, California will be better off with Proposition 47 than without it. As it stands now, a person comes out of prison after serving three years for a petty crime and returns to his or her old neighborhood with little or no additional education, decreased job prospects, no place to live and no guidance or assistance on overcoming whatever social problem, behavioral problem, illness or addiction got them into trouble in the first place. The businesses that may have been victimized have no additional protection. We’ll finally have funding to take care of those things.

It does not change the ability to charge or convict suspects of date rape or any other violent felony. It does reduce sentences for simple drug possession for use, but not for sale.

Jail and prison cells should be reserved for dangerous and other serious criminals, and resources for less serious offenders should be spent on true corrections -- the kinds of things that voluminous evidence shows us is more effective than incarceration in preventing recidivism.

The Los Angeles Times urges a “yes” vote on Proposition 47.

Twitter: @RGreene2