When Proposition 47 was passed in California, like most ballot measures, it was misleading. The 2014 ballot measure was called The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. How could someone vote against safe neighborhoods and schools? Eight years later, we are now seeing the negative consequences and opposite effects; instead of keeping our neighborhoods and schools safe, Prop 47 put dangerous criminals back on our streets.

The approval of Prop 47 served to reclassify and downgrade a number of serious crimes. The theory went: Our prisons are overcrowded, and we need to give people a second chance, so we shouldn’t prosecute nonviolent crimes. Drug possession, repeated shoplifting, gun theft, and possession of date-rape drugs (all of which were felonies before Prop 47 was approved) are now classified as misdemeanors, with a penalty of up to one year in jail. However, most often, they result in the issuance of a citation, with no jail time or rehabilitation services.