The Battle Over CA Prop 5: Special Interests Overwhelming the Public Interest

Here is picture that sums up much that is wrong with American politics. Five governors of California, Democrats and Republicans, joining forces to oppose something that is indisputably in the public interest.

This is an image that could be repeated, with different faces, in region after region of our country, involving issue after issue. Public officials standing against the public good, with the disastrous results on display from Detroit to Wall Street. All suffering from the same destructive force: the power of entrenched special interests to cloud the vision of our leaders, causing them to thwart good sense, good legislation, and the will of the people.

                                                                                                                                                AP/Nick Ut

In today's version, we have Jerry Brown, Pete Wilson, Gray Davis, George Deukmejian, and Arnold Schwarzenegger coming together to oppose Prop 5, a common sense ballot initiative that seeks to effectively and intelligently tackle the chronic problems facing California's deeply flawed criminal justice system.

California's prisons are a budget-busting debacle. There are currently more than 170,000 inmates crammed into prisons designed to hold 100,000 people. Around 70,000 of these prisoners are nonviolent offenders, with over half of them incarcerated for a drug offense.

A large part of the problem is a parole system the New York Times recently called "perhaps the most counterproductive and ill-conceived" in the U.S.. California's recidivism rate is 70 percent -- twice the national average. This stems in no small measure from the state's insistence on treating paroled murderers the same way as paroled nonviolent drug offenders. They all spend 3-5 years on parole. This overburdens parole officers, who end up spending very little time with any of their charges -- violent or nonviolent (According to the Times, 80 percent of California parolees have fewer than two 15-minute meetings with their parole officer per month.) Wouldn't it make more sense to keep a closer watch on rapists and killers than on nonviolent drug offenders?

As a result of this dysfunctional system, prison costs have risen 50 percent since 2000, to over $10 billion a year -- close to 10% of the state's budget (and roughly the same amount California spends on higher education). It costs $46,000 a year to keep a nonviolent prisoner in the state behind bars. Is it any wonder California is gushing red ink?

Enter Prop 5, a ballot initiative that will reduce prison overcrowding, increase public safety, cut costs, expand drug treatment programs inside California's prisons, and start the state's first drug treatment program for at-risk youth.

Prop 5 is structured to build on the proven success of Prop 36, a law promoting drug treatment over incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders. It was approved by 61 percent of California voters in 2000, despite almost unanimous opposition from public officials. Since being enacted, Prop 36 has saved California taxpayers $2 billion -- and graduated 84,000 people who, according to studies, are far less likely to become repeat offenders.

"Prop 5 finally addresses the twin tragedy of crushing prison costs on society and the revolving trapdoor of incarceration that stems from locking up too many nonviolent offenders," filmmaker Gabriel London, who has documented the state of our prisons, told me.

Given all this, and the fact that a majority of the public favors low-cost treatment models over the high-cost incarceration model, passage of Prop 5 would seem like a no-brainer. Especially given its support from a wide-range of drug treatment professionals, good government advocates, and clearly-not-soft-on-crime law enforcement types such as former San Quentin warden Jeanne Woodford who, blogging on HuffPost, wrote of Prop 5:

Prop 5 may well be California's last chance to bring about a solution to the many, intertwined problems in our criminal justice system... Incarceration of non-serious non violent drug offenders does not improve public safety. Treatment and accountability do. Prop 5 provides treatment and accountability. It is accountability for the drug user, the prison system, treatment providers, probation departments and the courts.

Yet Prop 5 is struggling because of a very powerful special interest: the prison guards union. It has funneled $1.8 million into the campaign to derail Prop 5.

For the guards, prison overcrowding means more overtime pay. So the state's prison industrial complex has unleashed the full force of its financial power -- funding an array of ads that blatantly mischaracterize Prop 5. Truth has gone out the window, replaced by overheated claims that the initiative is a "drug dealer's bill of rights," "a get out of jail free card" for meth dealers, and a law that will allow parents to abuse their kids and escape punishment.

Goodbye reform, hello fear. The special interests are, once again, overwhelming the public interest.

And, sadly, many politicians, many on the receiving end of prison guard contributions, have fallen in line. As Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy campaign manager for Yes On 5, puts it: "The prison guards hold the keys to the California statehouse, so it's not a surprise that those thinking of running for governor in 2010, like Jerry Brown, Diane Feinstein, and even Meg Whitman, have come out against Prop 5." (Here's Daniel Abrahamson, co-author of Prop 5, on his dealings with Jerry Brown.)

The truly disturbing thing about their opposition to Prop 5 is that not one of them -- nor any of the governors at today's photo op -- has stepped forward with an alternate solution to the undeniable criminal justice crisis California is facing. A crisis so pressing that, if Prop 5 doesn't pass, in all likelihood the federal courts will step in. On November 17, a three-judge panel will consider putting California's entire prison system under federal control -- a move that could require the state to spend an additional $8 billion to bring the system up to constitutional standards.

So to review: Prop 5 follows a successful model, will lessen over-crowding, will save a cash-strapped state billions, will reform a "counterproductive and ill-conceived" parole system, and will shift criminal justice dollars from incarceration to treatment -- an effective approach favored by a majority of the public. Yet our leaders are opposing it, without offering any alternatives.

The drug war continues to be an electrified third rail in American politics. And political money continues to be a roadblock to real reform.

Don't believe the hype. Don't allow a sensible solution to be drowned by a torrent of money.

Vote Yes on Prop 5.

If you are in the San Francisco area, I will be speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit on Friday, November 7th.

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[koifish83]

YES on Prop 5. Most drug dealers sell drugs to support their own habbit and have no intent to hurt anyone. The real threat to society are the violent offenders such as: murderers, rapists, child molesters, and robbers. The more chances we give a drug addict to rehabilitate is the more room we save for the real threats to society. Yes only about 4 out of 10 drug offenders make it through rehab; however, the 4 that make it go back to school and end up as tax paying citizens who put back in our society. When non violent offenders get institutionalized in the prison system, they have an extremely higher chance of becoming repeat offenders. Prop 5 is common sense. It use money on rehab, but saves money for not having to be incarcerated for 40,000 a year. It helps overcrowding. It gives a chance to people with much potential and ambition. It gives a chance for ex cons to put back into society. it stops the prison sysyem from institutionalizing inmates. Of course every law inforcement agency and district attorneys office would stand against Prop 5, but that is because that their stuck living in a career that involved nothing but taking away freedom from people any chance they get. These drug offenders are not murderers, give them a chance. Vote YES on prop 5. It's for the better.

[Star2000dancer]

I think the whole lot of these politicians should be fired & put behind bars... i bet they all have worse in their closets. They remind me of the people in the bible throwing stones. What good have they done this country? Especially the Republicans. Arnold should'nt even be a part of our government

Primative creatures with their own addictions putting 1st time pot offenders in jail while Arnold being the poster boy for sterhoids. We will self implode if we do'nt get some honest people back into government like Ron Paul & Dennis Kucinich. I'm one of the most honest & compassionate people I know, my Uncle's .word is his bond. I do'nt trust anyone else in my family. Bring out all the honest, loving, intelligent, educated, compassionate people you know everywhere & let's create another government of the people, by the people & of the people...

I bet Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich & Bernie Sanders would be glad to help. We must get rid of Pelosi, she was Bush & Cheney's enabler.

[Amyray]

Thank God someone is telling the truth about Prop 5 and understands it.

Emmory - you are not only clueless, you are hopeless as well.
You remind me of the quote "We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them."

I know lots of prison guards who understand that prisons are overcrowded with people who need treatment and not prison. But, there are also a lot of prison guards who are biased because their jobs depend on the drug war to pave the way for building more prisons that create a stronger union.

I know a lot of prison guards because I was in prison and if it weren't for President Clinton I'd be in prison today. Clinton pardoned over 30 federal prisoners convicted of drug conspiracy and NOT ONE returned to prison (that i know of). Instead of sucking up your tax dollars, I now earn money, pay taxes, spend at the stores and support our lagging economy. If it were left up to you, we'd still be building prisons to house bootleggers and dealing with the violence from the Al Capones. Go to the LEAP website and read what law enforcement says about the drug war. Maybe that will convince you.

Emmory, unless you've been to prison, you truly have no idea who is in there. So don't assume you do.

[bosse]

Prisons are full of men who made a simple mistake, along with hard core. We ought to have a sensible and JUST criminal system and enforcement. Smoling a small amt. of pot or stealing a peice of candy shouldnt ber tretead as if a young person commited muder,, and then place him in cruel prison, where he really get educated in the worst ways of life. Let us do better. It is very expensive to keep all these petty criminals, in and we regular people pay for it and the salaries of the Jailors, whose life is thretaened. LEt us elect a President and congress that will take an honest and serious look at these problems and encourage States to have uniform punishment system, and better guidance for petty and youg criminals. Let us not keep them in over corwded jails, and be under control of politically charged SHERIFFS! Let us all be trated with decency, and compassion, for once.

[isis]

I'm glad to see this topic brought up. I went to a forum for local candidates and one talked about the huge costs of incarcerating non-violent offenders. Not only do we build big costly prisons but the families left behind often fall into poverty and chaos and their dysfunction can perpetuate crime. By contrast a GOP candidate called building big prisons a growth industry.

[Ageyv]

It appears that many more people are trying to clean up the water that is pouring through the holes in the dam then there are those working to plug up the holes. What would all these attorneys and those in the criminal justice system do without all these problems.

Perhaps one “part” of an alternative larger plan will be making it a crime for pharmaceutical companies to advertise and promote drugs, and, YES, even the over-the-counter drugs.

This society pushes pills and drugs to solve all our ills… can’t poop, take a pill, poop to much, take a pill, got an ache, take a pill, got heartburn, take a pill, can’t sleep, take a pill, can’t get it up, take a pill, can’t handle PMS, take a pill, don’t eat healthy foods, take a pill or drink a special drink, feeling depressed, take a pill. Watched TV lately? What’s the message here? Shocking to see how many times in any given 24 hour period you see a commercial pushing pills and drugs to solve all your problems. If we can outlaw alcohol and tobacco commercials then we can outlaw advertising all these pharmaceutical drugs as well.

There are no shortcuts people!! Healthy societies, just like healthy bodies and minds take work and a will to make it happen. Where are all the celebrities willing to step up and set the example by glamorizing the real work it takes for healthy lifestyles? Where are the “healthy lifestyle” telethons?

[doneright]

I like your comments about our society being pill pushing and pill popping. On the other hand, there have been tremendous advances in treatment of various illnesses and what it really takes to stay healthy. You cannot throw the baby out with the bath water. It is the competitive nature of the drug industry that is to blame. When a company comes out with a new drug they want to push sales any way they can. There is no discretion in advertising based on good science and the welfare of the patient. The advertising is based on what will sell, what is legal and what will turn a profit.

I disagree with your suggestion that what we need is healthy lifestyle telethons. I suspect you would develop a cult following with most people tuning them out. I also disagree that it takes will power and celebrities pushing healthy lifestyle to make it happen. What we need is to get away from the celebrity mentality. Teach self reliance and healthy living at an early age. As it is people feel stressed to live up to and perform beyond their means. They are looking for something to give them an edge or to overcome their deficits. Pill bushing and pill popping has become a way of life simply because of our life style. Change the life style and you will change the need.

[LiberalBuzz]

Get past the Prison Guards Union and things will be fine but they are like an evil plague.

[hosshoss777]

There just has to be a sensible middle ground between "Clockwork Orange" and chain gangs.

[LiberalBuzz]

The thing is MOST of the people in there, especially the drug offenders, minus any violence they committed, don't belong behind bars. So no need to find a middle ground.

Just let them the heck out.

[Emmory]

I'm sorry but you are dead wrong about MOST people in prison not belonging there.
Where did you get that crazy idea from?

I've heard things of this nature before and it might sound hip but it just isn't true.
Talk to someone who works at a prison and see what they think.

These are by and large dangerous people we are talking about and they should be treated as such period.

[Emmory]

You can't talk sense into criminals.
Most families can't even talk sense into their own teenagers let alone expecting the prison system to somehow rehabilitate criminals.
Why is it the States job to see to it criminals stop being criminals?
Prison is a place for adult men and women who can't stop behaving like barbarians.
Fancy talk, feelings and wacky ideas won't change that.

[pumpkin]

I love how you group all "criminals" together. Of course there are distinctions among people who break the law. Or maybe you think people who smoke marijuana are the same as mass murderers.

[doneright]

According to your logic, the only way to sensibly deal with the prison overcrowding problem would be to execute them at the first offense. Way to go man. You know all about being effective.

[jeffmojo]

Drug use is compensation for low self-esteem. If people get into a positive functional relationship and 'get a life' they don't drugs.

[LiberalBuzz]

Nonsense. As long as man has existed, there has been a desire to alter his reality, either with alcohol, pot, coke, whatever. If it were true that Banana peels got you high you'd have to smuggle bananas. Generally most of those are just stress relievers.

Come home, have a beer, a martini, a joint, etc.

It has nothing to do with low self esteem for the vast, vast majority of users who are all "weekend warriors". They are otherwise functioning well adjusted individuals who like to alter their reality from time to time. They pay their bills, they own homes, work during the week, have marriages and families and are upstanding members of the community.

Yeah I know hard to believe after all the c rud we are handed in the media, but that is the way the real world of drug use in America is. It is the few who go overboard who manage to make the news and the news makes it always seem like they are on their last legs and that is the way ALL drug users are..

Not so and never was so.

[isis]

As a chemist I can tell you that not all reality altering is created equal. When you treat all drugs the same or even foolishly put some plants on Schedule 1 and synthetic drugs on Schedule 2 the laws make no sense at all. Some better way to regulate these things is needed. The less harmful ones should be legal and regulated. They could be made less dangerous and potent and money could be made and saved. Keep it Simple Stupid might sound nice to blurt out but many social problems are not simple

[doneright]

You have assumed that wanting to alter your reality is a common desire in everyone and should be acceptable to society in general. Why would you want to alter your reality? Maybe it is because you don’t like the reality you have and you think altering your mental state will alter the real thing. It won’t. When you come back around, it will more than likely seem worse. If you really want to alter your reality, drugs is not the way to go. All you do is alter your perception of reality which eventually if you do it enough you won’t be able to tell the difference. Ever wander why so many are inclined to go overboard?

[rita66]

Absolutely right. By any rational definition of "addiction", someone who smokes a joint occasionally after work, or at a party, is in no way an "addict". Yet these propositions would force them into "treatment"!! Treatment for what??? Most drug treatment is total crap. A person must state they are "powerless" and "hopeless" and all sorts of degrading self-definitions. Then they are usually required to get involved with 12-step groups where they have to pray to some deity to "remove their character defects" and to "follow God's will".... Also they have to get a "sponsor" who is totally untrained, just some shmoe in the step group who then becomes their master, and they the slave....

So when "treatment" is mandated by law for someone who is an ordinary non-problematic user of something, then what?? If the "counselor" doesn't think they are debasing themselves enough and making up enough stories about what a "hopeless addict" they are, what, they get threatened with jail? What about if they refuse to pray or to name some "Higher Power" they believe in? Jail? Whipping? Stoning??

[Emmory]

You speak of cost. What will it cost the general public if we release dangerous criminals and they commit more crimes?
I don't think a study of that nature has ever been done.
I think you should have a look at what sort of people are IN prison and then tell us which of them should be released early.

[shockmagog]

That's what Proposition 5 is all about:

Rehabilitation for non-violent drug offenders, so they won't be treated like the prisoners you speak of--the ones who SHOULD be locked away. The cost and societal benefits are too big to ignore.

[pumpkin]

You don't think there have been studies of the cost of recidivism on the general public? That speaks volumes of your understanding of crime and criminal justice.

In other words, you have no idea what you're talking about.

[littledogs1]

this is what is wrong with this country, we put all our money into to keeping non violent offenders locked up insted of doing what the rest of the modern world has come to realize works, Rehab. In england if you are addicted to heroin, you can walk into a clinic and get methadone free of charge and if you want a rehab bed you get one that day, the day you are stong and ready to quit, in the U.S. there are waiting list six months to a year or more long, not to mention that there are far and few between. We need to put money into prevention and treatment. I believe most non violent and violent crime can be traced to drug abuse. Our prisions don't even treat people for their problems, no help to get to the bottom of the drug abuse, Our prisions should be corectional facilities not penal systems. If you lock someone up for 5 years and you don't treat the reason they offended, than when they come out they go right back to it, it is a mistake to continue this wast of money. Not to mention the fact that they should be getting job training and education to lift them out of povertie.

[MMJones]

We live in a small rural area in California that has a model Drug Court, which allows a chance for treatment and addressing one's drug and alcohol problems when possible. IT HAS MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE and shows that it works and works well. Sure, it's not 100% success, but often enough it stimulates positive change in a person's life that is heartening. Plus the ramifications of not following through to successful completion of rehabilitation are stringent enough that all sides are covered.

It works. It works well. It makes sense.

[demar]

I can't blame unions for trying to protect jobs for their members. I can blame the Taft Hartley act for putting impediments in the way of union organizing. If there were more well paying jobs available there would be less reason to support bad policy to protect work. I ran into the same problem in fighting LNG terminals off the California coast. The construction unions were in league with the builders because of jobs. Solidarity is a term that should transend self interest and apply to the broader good. Drug use is a medical problem for some people. Incarceration is not the solution. Vote yes on measure 5.

[ekwbowen]

Thanks! I'm a California voter and I will be voting YES on Prop 5. It is sensible and timely - no wonder some of our more idiotic politicians are against it. But what was Jerry Brown doing there? He's always been an all right guy in my book. Weird.

[ARBOC2]

What the hell is Brown doing on the list? I hate to think that political ambition will corrupt everybody. What a damn shame.

[pumpkin]

When anyone is sent to prison losing freedom is just the tip of the iceberg. We also separate families, reduce earning potential and compound any presenting problems. The punishment needs to fit the crime and in most cases, incarceration does not "fit' nonviolent drug offenders.

We need common sense policies that are based on empirical research, not ones that are based on knee jerk "get tough" mentalities or re-election fears. All these "public servants" probably agree with the amendment in private. They're just scared to death of being seen as "soft on crime".

[berrycooda]

Get rid of the drugs and a lot of the crime will stop...

Quit being soft on the dealers and suppliers...open Alcatraz ...
Money talks and too many people get out of trouble instead of long prison sentences they deserve.
Stop the plea agreements. and stop giving probation...
There are more criminals on the streets who should be in jail then the ones locked up for a lot less.
The 3 strike law is a farce and puts people away for life who maybe stole some food or a pair of shoes.

Build a prison in the middle of the desert and put the crooked politicians and anybody working for
the system that takes bribes there for a long time.

Drug pushers intimidate kids. Then when they are hooked, they go into the crime scene to make
money for their drug habits.

[Topsailsman]

Cooda,
The "war on drugs" has been on since 1968, that is 40 years and nothing has changed. Legalize and regulate the drugs, and overnight you wipe out all the crime and money. Take a fraction of the money wasted on enforcement and put it into treatment and research into ways to conquer addiction. Your ideas have been tried and have failed- get tough, longer sentencing, worse prisons, no probation, all this has been the national policy for 40 years and it doesn't work.

[hosshoss777]

Where is the line crossed between respect for property rights, which simply stated means what you have should be protected from being stolen from you, from becoming those that have the most are so able to influence life's games to tilt all the advantages in their favor to keep getting more and make it impossible for others to gain and improve?
To get at the roots of crime means to take on the division between the haves and have nots. Can this be done without creating new class of haves under whatever system is devised? No.
Addiction, is it a genetic predisposition or is it some kind of escape from perceived wrongs done to the addicted? I don't know, ideally, the law should protect society from the often irrational behavior of the addicted from doing harm to others and him/her self. And how best to do that with mandates? Incarceration and mandated treatment are usually internalized as more wrongs done to the addicted.