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Constitutionality Of The California Proposition 47

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Arlin Duran
Govt 150
April 16, 2015
California Proposition 47 Many Constitutional proposals are neither accepted or denied depending on how many individuals favor it. The California Proposition 47 was one of the approved proposals. California Proposition 47, the Safe Neighbors and Schools Act, requests felony crimes that are considered not to be serious or violent to misdemeanors and would allow anyone currently serving a felony sentence that meets those qualifications to be resentenced. According to the California General Election Voter Information Guide, the main goal of Prop 47 was to have focus on more heinous crimes and give more to the rehabilitation of the less serious offenders. The money saved by passing this proposition would go …show more content…

Also, there would be less prisoners serving time for lesser, nonviolent crimes. During the 1970’s, the tough on crime movement contributed to a drastic increase in punishment for lesser crimes and led a massive increase in imprisonment, even though the crime rates stayed the same (Gascon 2014). It is disputed that even though the movement was attractive to voters, it is doing more harm than good. Ever since the 1960’s, the amount of individuals detained has increased roughly about ten times than normal (Gascon 2014). Expanding a prison population requires more places, such as prisons and jails, to detain prisoners and California had built “22 new prisons in just 30 years” (Gascon 2014). Building new prisons and detaining more prisoner’s costs money and this money will come out of taxpayers. Newt Gingrich and B. Wayne Hughes Jr. said in an editorial that “prison is for people that we are afraid of, but we have been filling them with many folks we are just mad at.” They also state if the proposition is passed it will bring some light on the face that over $60,000 is spent on one inmate alone per year, while less than $10,000 is spent on each student in schools (Gingrich and Hughes 2014). The American Civil Liberties Union, the Sentencing Project, and the Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice are also in favor of the proposition. Some of these groups agree with Gingrich and Hughes statements, the money

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