The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board has supported criminal justice reform for years, arguing that mass incarceration policies unique to America are destructive, counterproductive and unnecessary for public safety. But efforts to address this issue in California have been plagued by a lack of vetting and thorough debate. This problem is now so acute that reformers risk triggering a backlash via a ballot initiative that could undo the good they have done as well as correct some terrible mistakes.

In 2014, voters approved Proposition 47, which reclassified several nonviolent felonies as misdemeanors in a ham-handed way that didn’t make crucial distinctions. Few people, for instance, would think possession of date rape drugs should be seen as a minor offense, but that wasn’t even the worst flaw. A Los Angeles Times analysis found that the law had emboldened repeat offenders, especially drug addicts who steal to pay for their habits. A recent Public Policy Institute of California study found little evidence that the measure had increased overall crime rates, but the measure desperately needed a mechanism to force chronic offenders into drug treatment. Incredibly, the California Police Chiefs Association says that participation in drug rehabilitation programs has decreased because of the law.

Yet Proposition 47’s crafting was superior to what Californians witnessed in Proposition 57, which voters approved in 2016. This law made it easier for “nonviolent” felons to win parole. But again, its authors failed to sweat the details, using an existing, over-broad list of nonviolent crimes that included rape of an unconscious person and violent child abuse. The worst fears about Proposition 57 were confirmed in February, when a state judge ruled that the state could not retroactively rewrite the measure in a way that denied possible early release to thousands of violent sex offenders.

Now, in the worst example of rushed reform yet, Gov. Jerry Brown this week signed into law Assembly Bill 1810 — a budget “trailer bill” with no credited author that takes effect immediately. It includes a provision that appears to allow defendants charged with any crime to get the charges put on hold and perhaps eventually dismissed if they can persuade a judge that the offense resulted from a mental disorder that a mental health expert says is treatable.


A case can be made that a defendant’s mental illness should be considered by prosecutors and judges — it’s certainly relevant. Senate Bill 215, now before the Legislature, would have allowed this in defined, limited circumstances. But instead of vetoing AB 1810 and letting this debate proceed, Brown short-circuited it. He did so despite being warned by San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan that this is “the most irresponsible legislation our state has ever seen” and that it would “wreak havoc in our criminal justice system.”

The Los Angeles County Association of Deputy District Attorneys blasted the maneuvering that led to the new law as a “scandalous abuse of the legislative process.” But that doesn’t go far enough. What Brown and state lawmakers have done is an outrageous simultaneous display of arrogance and incompetence — one that seems certain to haunt the criminal justice reform movement. Get ready for a signature-gathering push that seeks to overturn AB 1810 — and maybe Propositions 47 and 57 as well.

Even after decades of declining crime, tough-on-crime rhetoric often resonates with the public. But such rhetoric will be all the more potent to voters who know of the sheer recklessness that led to AB 1810’s stealth adoption. If the governor and the Legislature don’t promptly repeal the law, they will do grave harm to a cause they purport to support.

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