Vote no on Prop 36: prisons are not treatment centers

OPINION – We all deserve to feel safe, no matter where we live or how much money we make. While safety is a priority for all communities, our elected leaders are divided on the approach and solutions to real safety.  The fear and frustration many of us feel is a result of this division.

Many cities in California are experiencing a safety crisis. People deep in their addiction are overdosing and experiencing mental health emergencies in public.  In San Francisco, over 3,000 people have died fueling a safety crisis that has made the city the butt of every MAGA joke.

As a result, big-city mayors are running toward tough on crime approaches that fueled this crisis in the first place. They blame Proposition 47, an initiative California voters passed ten years ago with nearly 60% support, reducing penalties for nonviolent drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.

Now, law enforcement groups are selling Proposition 36 as the answer to drug crimes by allowing possession cases to be charged as felonies and requiring people selling drugs to serve time in state prison. The underlying assumption is increased penalties and prison will compel people to treatment and solve the drug crisis.

My brother Mitchell was a victim of homicide on January 1, 2017 at Mendell Plaza in San Francisco’s Bayview, a neighborhood my family has called home for generations.  The Plaza is where he took the bus to school as a kid. In 2017, it was where he hung out and chased his addiction.

Proposition 36 proponents want voters to believe that punishment and incarceration will force people to get clean and sober. In Mitchell’s case, jail is where he was introduced to opioids. Jail staff fed him highly addictive opioid pills daily for the pain he was experiencing from a gunshot wound, instead of health care, PTSD and mental health support.  If the intention was to numb him, it worked. My brother told me many times it was easier to “sleep his time away” than to wake up reliving his trauma in jail.

While in custody, Mitchell was offered diversion but every program had a long waitlist.  In jail for months, he got out with a full blown addiction. For years, he repeated the cycle of getting arrested for petty theft to support his new habit, doing short and long stings in jail until his untimely death at 35 years old.

Anyone who has faced addiction knows how hard it is to get someone into treatment, especially if you don’t have the tens and thousands of dollars for a private facility. My family tried many ways to get my brother help. We met dozens of other desperate people in our situation. That’s because over the last 30 years, California has had a shortage of treatment beds.

Since 2016, Proposition 47 has saved the state $816 million – prison savings from reduced incarceration has been reallocated to treatment, victim services, K-12 schools and other services.  If Proposition 36 passes, prison costs will increase by $4.5 billion dollars. This means less prison savings and funding cuts for treatment, rehabilitation and crime prevention programs.

We all deserve to feel safe. Prisons as treatment centers is the wrong answer.  We need more investment in treatment because it reduces both violent and financially motivated crimes.  Every dollar spent for treatment is estimated to yield a $12 return. If we don’t invest in treatment, the outcomes speak for themselves.  In Kentucky, the state addressed its opioid crisis with punitive drug laws. In 2019, Kentucky counties spent more than $402 million on local jails. In 2020, Kentucky had the second-highest drug overdose mortality rate in the nation.

Locking people up for drug crimes will not make our communities safer. Real solutions increase access and resources for people who need help and improve outcomes for the short and long-term. Voters are tricked into thinking it’s a binary choice between reform and accountability. We deserve to have both.

We need shared safety solutions rooted in public health.  A path towards safety requires us to hold many things at once – accountability, effective policing, centering crime survivors, resourcing public health strategies, and building true partnerships between government and community.

Prop 36 is all smoke and mirrors. It will take us backwards by arresting and incarcerating people with the disease of addiction. A path forward requires all of us to be in the work together, and ensure a sense of trust and security among Californians about the true meaning of safety.

Tinisch Hollins is the Executive Director of Californians for Safety and Justice.