California voters approved a ballot measure yesterday that will cut the time some offenders spend behind bars for common drug and theft crimes in the state. Under Proposition 47, which reclassifies certain felonies as misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in jail, as many as 7,000 inmates could be eligible for early release from state prisons, and courts will likely dispense around 40,000 fewer felony convictions per year. The measure, which takes effect immediately, is good criminal justice policy – in a state that has long had some of the most severe sentencing laws in the country.
Less obvious but no less positive, the new law will protect authorized immigrants in the state from harsh deportation laws that have been ripping thousands of US families apart over the last two decades.
Under federal law, some crimes must be punishable by at least one year to result in deportation of the offender. Proposition 47, combined with a bill signed by Governor Jerry Brown in July, ensures that a minor conviction for shoplifting, forgery, fraud, petty theft, receipt of stolen property, or – most significantly – simple possession of marijuana will no longer trigger deportation for a person who is otherwise in the United States legally.
Nationwide over 375,000 deportations since 2003 have involved people whose most serious conviction was for a drug offense. In these cases, those deported often end up doubly punished: on top of serving long prison sentences in the US, they experience permanent exile from their US-based families and from the country they consider home.
Even after the success of this ballot initiative in California, many will still continue to suffer such treatment by virtue of being convicted for a minor crime in another state under still unreformed sentencing laws. California’s move does not lessen the need for reforming federal immigration laws. Indeed, the US Congress should repeal draconian provisions put into effect by several pieces of legislation – from the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 to the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Responsibility Act of 1996 – that mandate detention and deportation and deny authorized immigrants with convictions an opportunity to argue for a second chance.
Until that happens, though, other states should look to California’s Proposition 47 as a model for how to improve state sentencing laws while at the same time alleviating their harsh immigration consequences.
