VOTE 'NO' ON 5

Please vote "no" on Proposition 5. Here is why it will cost California
a fortune while making it a more dangerous place to live:

Proposition 5 is supposed to expand on its predecessor, Proposition
36.

However, the outcome of Proposition 36 has been a huge disappointment
across the state. Since its inception, more than 75 percent of
Proposition 36 participants have failed - either by never even showing
up or by dropping out of the program before completion.

Proposition 5 will shorten parole for methamphetamine dealers and
other drug dealing felons from 3 years to just 6 months. Police,
prosecutors, and parole supervisors know that shortening parole for
drug dealers will dramatically increase violent crime rates. Simply
put, Proposition 5 will increase drug related crime by releasing the
people who supply drugs into the community.

Proposition 5 would provide, in effect, a "get out of jail free" card
to other hardened criminals charged with offenses such as identity
theft, fraud, auto theft, and burglary by allowing defendants to claim
that drugs made them commit their crimes.

Proposition 5 sets up a myriad of treatment levels that apply to
different defendants depending on how many times they have been to
prison and how many times they have failed drug treatment. In reality,
Prop 5 will force the courts to use valuable resources to enforce drug
treatment programs that, by their own design, will not work.

Proposition 5 is expensive. It will set up two new bureaucracies with
no accountability, at a cost of hundreds of millions. The oversight
committees will have only minimal representation from judges and law
enforcement.

Proposition 5 is unnecessary. Under current law, no first-time
offender arrested solely for possession is sent to prison.

Now, please join us and vote "no" on Proposition 5. Help us continue
to hold drug dealers and other serious criminals responsible for their
crimes.

Chris Pedersen
Jeff Kauffman
Janice Williams
John Ellis
Karen Jensen

Solano County Deputy District Attorneys