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By Dan Walters
OPINION (CALMATTERS) -California voters will begin marking their mail-in ballots for the Nov. 5 election in just a few days and how they vote may reflect their somewhat sour outlooks, particularly rising concerns about crime, a pre-election poll suggests.
The Public Policy Institute of California survey, released Wednesday night, found that “majorities of adults and likely voters think the state is headed in the wrong direction and expect the state to have bad times financially in the next 12 months,” the San Francisco-based think tank said in its analysis.
The poll also revealed that 71% of voters support Proposition 36, which would boost penalties for some crimes, partially undoing Proposition 47, a 2014 measure that reduced sentences. At least 41% said the outcome of this vote is “very important.”
The strong support for Prop. 36 — which is sponsored by a coalition of law enforcement and business groups and backed by many local officials — should not be a surprise.
Earlier this month, the institute released a study confirming that property crimes have been rising since Prop. 47’s passage, while the ranks of police have thinned and arrests for such crimes have declined.
“Driven by larcenies, property crime jumped after Prop 47 compared to the nation and comparison states,” the study found.
Prop. 36’s popularity marks a change of public attitudes since the heyday of what was called “criminal justice reform” a decade ago, when then-Gov. Jerry Brown, legislators and voters, under pressure from federal courts, were depopulating the state’s overcrowded prison system. The number of felons declined by nearly 50% from a peak of 173,000 in 2006.
