California's Prop. 36 Gets Another Positive Review
The Justice Policy Institute released a report outlining some of the successes of California's Prop. 36. Previous studies done on the proposition's effectiveness (here and here) have shown the same thing: it works. California saw the greatest decline in the number of drug-related inmates among the nation's 10 largest states since 2000. California also came in second (to New York) overall in the percentage drop of those imprisoned. Also, "The rate of incarceration for drug-possession offenses has gone from 89 per 100,000 California adults in December 2000 to 58 in December 2005—a 34.3 percent decrease." The full report can be found here.
Comments
Unbiased (as in groups that neither supported nor opposed Prop 36 when it was up for the first time) reports show a less sanguine view on Prop 36 than this site leads on. See the Rand report here: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG288/index.html
Prop 36 needs more teeth and should be divorced from legalization advocates, like Nadelmann's Drug Policy Alliance, to gain more credibility and allow the law to work better.
Posted by: Kevin | April 21, 2006 03:04 AM
Yes, Prop 36 does need more teeth, and many of its supporters agree that it needs to be changed. However, Prop 36 has been a success, and it remains a strong starting point.
If anyone would like to hear a good conversation with some professors (including Mark Kleiman) about Prop 36 go here: http://www.samefacts.com/archives/drug_policy_/2006/04/chipping_away_at_my_15_minutes.php
Posted by: Eric Gorin-Regan | April 23, 2006 08:06 PM