Sabha, Tamer
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Attachments:
Michelle Parris
Tuesday, October 1, 2024 12:32 PM
Madison, Steve; Lyon, Jason; Masuda, Gene; Rivas, Jessica Harvey-Williams, Brenda; Sabha, Tamer
Opposing Item 2 + what Pasadena will lose with Prop 36
10.1.24 Vera Public Comment. Item 2 - Oppose.pdf
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Dear members of the legislative committee,
I understand you will be considering whether to take a position on Prop 36 this evening. I urge you all to take a No on Prop 36 position and am attaching Vera's public comment. I also wanted to share a resource we created that might be of interest. We recently published a research brief showing that Prop 36 risks cutting funding from key LA County programs that help prevent crime before it happens (things like housing services, drug treatment and more).
In Pasadena specifically, for example, Prop 36 risks cutting funding for the following proven effective programs:
Just last year, Pasadena's police department, fire department, and public health departments received $1.1 million to fund a program that will help one third of unhoused Pasadenans off the street and into the housing and drug treatment they need.
Similarly, in Pasadena, the police department has received $2.51 million to fund substance use disorder programs.
The funding for these programs is at risk if Prop 36 passes.
Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you for your consideration.
Thank you,
Michelle Parris
Director, Vera California
Vera Institute of Justice
634 South Spring Street, #300A
Los Angeles, CA 90014
(pronouns: she/her)
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VeraINSTITUTE
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October l, 2024
Pasadena City Council, Legislative Policy Committee
Via email: smadison(5)cityofpasadena.net: jlyon(S)cityofpasadena.net; gmasudaCScityofpasadena.net; irivas(S)citvofDasadena.net CC: bharveyvv(5)cityofpasadena.net; tsabhafa) cityofpasadena.net Re: In Opposition to Item 2: Motion, Entitled, "Support of Proposition 36 Allow Felony Charges and Increases Sentences for Certain Drug and Theft Crimes on the November 5, 2024 State General Election Ballot." Dear Legislative Policy Committee of the Pasadena City Council, My name is Michelle Parris. I am the program director ofVera California, a local initiative of the Vera Institute of Justice, which is a national organization working to end mass incarceration, protect immigrants' rights, and build safe, thriving communities. I urge the coinniittee to reject the City Manager's proposal and instead take position to oppose Proposition 36 on the November 2024 ballot.
Instead of funding the care first programs Pasadena desperately needs, which are proven to prevent crime-things like drug treatment, homelessness prevention, victims' services, and K-12 school programs—Prop 36 would strip more than $100 inillion each year in funding for those vital services.1 In Los Angeles County, these programs have served more than 10,000 people with excellent results:
The rate of new convictions for people who participate in these programs is more than four times lower than that of people coming out of state prison. o Only 10 percent of people in the county's programs faced a new criminal conviction in the years after incarceration, compared to almost 42 percent rate statewide.
In one Los Angeles County program, 86 percent of participants left the program with housing, and more than half found eniployment.2
Pasadena itself - including its police departnient, fire department, and public health department - is at risk of losing funding for critical and proven effective programs if Prop 36 passes. Just last year, for example, Pasadena's police department, fire department, and public health departments received l.l million to fund a program that will help one third of unhoused Pasadenans off the street and into the housing and drug treatment they need.3
Prop 36 will worsen existing disparities in jails and prisons. Even though studies show that white people shoplift more, Black people are three times more likely to be 634 S Spring Street, 0300A, Los Angeles, CA 90014vera.org VeraINSTITUTE
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arrested for retail theft. For organized retail theft, Black boys and young men aged 15-24 make up 24 perfect of arrests, despite making up just 0.4 percent of California's population.4
Prop 36 will also worsen drug use in Los Angeles by defunding successful treatment programs and sending more people to jail and prison, which are not set up to help people with substance use disorders.5 Overdoses in California prisons have doubled in recent years, and people leaving jail and prison are up to 129 times more likely to overdose.6
Finally, by sending more people to jail and prison, Prop 36 will worsen California's homelessness crisis. People who have spent time in jail or prison are 10 times more likely to be honieless, and people who are unhoused are ll tinies niore likely to be arrested than people who have a stable home. 7 It will also reduce funding for successful programs that help people find stable housing.
We urge the coninaittee to vote "NO" to oppose this motion to support Prop
36. Vera s experts and researchers would be glad to provide more information or answer questions—you can contact me at
Sincerely,
%. POAA^
]VIichelle Parris
Program Director
Vera California
1 Californians for Safety and Justice (CSJ), Mass Incarceration Ballot Initiative: A New Proposed Ballot Initiative Offers No Treatment, Only Punishment (Oakland, CA: CSJ, 2024), https://perma.cc/NLAQ- )PWS.
2 Vera Institute of Justice, Proposition 36 Risks Cutting Millions in Funding that Helps Thousands of Angelenos (Los Angeles: Vera, 2024), https://vera-advocacy-and- partnerships.s3.amazonaws.com/Vera%20CA Los%2oAngeles%20Prop%2047%2oFunding%2oResearc h%2oBrief.pdf.
3 City of Pasadena Public Health Department, Prop 47 Grant Program, Local Evaluation Plan, (Pasadena, CA: 2023), https://ww\v.bscc.ca.gov/'vvD-content/uuloads/Pasadena-Local-Evaluation- Plan.pdf.
4 Vera Institute of Justice, Retail Theft Crackdown Will Increase Mass Incarceration, Worsen Racial Disparities, and Harm Youth in Los Angeles (Los Angeles: Vera, 2024), https://vera-advocacy-and- partnerships.s'3.amazonaws.com/Vera%20CA Los%2oAngeles%2oRetail%2oTheft%2oRacial%2oDispar ities%2Qin9620Fact%20Sheet.udf.
634 S Spring Street, #300A, los Angeles, CA 90014vnra.ora VeraINSTITUTE
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s Emily Widra, "Addicted to Punishment: Jails and Prisons Punish Drug Use Far More than They Treat It," Prison Policy Initiative, January 30,2024,
httDS://^-n'v>r.DrisonDolicv.org/blog/2024/oi/.riO/Dunishine-drug-use. 6 Don Thompson, "California Prison Dmg Overdoses Surge Again After Early Treatment Success," LAist, February 17, 2024, https://Iaist.com/news/health/california-prison-drug-overdoses-surge-again-after- early-treatment-siiccess; and Ingrid A. Binswanger, Marc F. Stern, Richard A. Deyo, et al., "Release from Prison—A High Risk of Death for Former Inmates," New England Journal of Medicine 356, no. 2 (2007), 157~65> 16l, https://perma.cc/L4QX-7MZ7. Researchers agree that people leaving incarceration have a higher risk of overdose death, but estimates of likelihood differ by study. 7 Lucius Couloute, "Nowhere to Go: Homelessness among Formerly Incarcerated People," Prison Policy Initiative, August 2018, http://perma.cc/2jST-EEJC; and National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NHLC), Housing Not Handcuffs 2019: Ending the Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities (Washington, DC: NHLC, 2019), https://perma.cc/NT7W-TDTH. 634 S Spring Street, #300A, los Angelas, CA 90014vra.org