California Voters Clearly Want Tougher Criminal Penalties
A clear majority of even Californians support making criminal penalties stiffer — by two-to-one ratio. Even 47% of somewhat liberal people support stiffing the penalties.
Nearly 58 percent of the 1,685 likely voters surveyed support Proposition 36, a November ballot measure that would increase penalties for drug crimes and serial theft. The measure is backed by prosecutors and would roll back parts of a landmark 2014 initiative, Proposition 47, that reduced prison sentences. . . .
A majority of likely California voters support stiffer penalties for crimes involving theft and fentanyl, according to a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by The Times.
The results of the poll released Friday showed that 56% of Californians would support Proposition 36, an initiative on the November ballot that would impose stricter sentences for repetitive theft and offenses involving the deadly drug fentanyl.
The proposition has been at the center of a battle in the state Capitol this year as Republicans and law enforcement advocates call for the undoing of Democratic reform policies that downgraded some felonies to misdemeanors, which they blame for an increase in organized retail theft and “smash and grab” robberies. . . .
