California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 36 on November 5th, supporting a measure that will increase penalties for drug and theft offenses Prop 36 reverses some of the changes California voters made to the criminal justice system a decade ago with Proposition 47, which lowered the penalties for some crimes while seeking to reduce the state's then-swollen prison population.

Since California voters passed Prop 47 in 2014, prosecutors, police, and big box retailers have blamed the law for an increase in property crimes and homelessness.

Statewide, the Public Policy Institute of California found that reported shoplifting of merchandise worth up to $950 soared at 28% over the past five years.

That's the highest observed level since 2000.

Combining shoplifting with commercial burglaries, the Institute's researchers found that total reported thefts were 18% higher than in 2019.

Prop 36 creates a new category of crime, a "treatment-mandated felony".

People who don't contest criminal charges after multiple drug possession convictions could complete drug treatment instead of going to prison, but if they don't finish treatment, they still face up to three years in prison.

The Legislative Analyst's Office forecasts that the measu.. tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Those costs are chiefly from placing a few thousand more people in prison and putting them in for longer terms.

The rest of the costs to the state will be accrued in the court system, where felonies take longer to prosecute than misdemeanors, and where the county court systems will have to create new processes to handle the measure's new category of crime.

Newsom did not put any money into opposing the measure, but he has called attention to its potential to drive up spending on the justice system.

With CalMatters, I'm Robert Meeks, with reporting by Nigel Duara.