PROP. 5 SIMPLY BAD LAW LAW

Proposition 5, which is on the November ballot, calls itself the
"Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act." It seeks to entice your vote
by claiming to support drug courts and rehabilitation, and promises to
reduce our prison population and thereby lessen California's ongoing
budget woes.

It will do neither. It will simply give those deserving a prison
sentence a get-out-of-jail-free card if they claim "drugs made me do
it."

As with most initiatives, Proposition 5 was written by a special
interest group. The initiative is very long and poorly written. In its
36 pages you will find one thing, a very bad law. It applies to many
non-drug-related offenses such as arson, burglary, auto theft, child
pornography and DUI. It does not limit itself to simple possession
drug crimes. In fact, it will allow a defendant to have up to a
kilogram of narcotics to take advantage of its no-jail-time
provisions. Those who have a kilogram of any drug are not simple
addicts - they are sophisticated dealers.

Those of us who work in the criminal justice system have a
responsibility to seek and ensure public safety; to seek and ensure
the protection of those victimized and to seek and ensure the
appropriate punishment of those who victimize others. Proposition 5
eliminates our ability to accomplish these goals. It is well
recognized by those of us in law enforcement that drug treatment is an
essential component of any strategy to combat drug abuse.

Our county's drug court program accomplishes its success by imposing
accountability. There are consequences for failures to attend or for
failures to test and for testing dirty. Proposition 5 eliminates this
accountability. It takes all discretion away from our local judges to
determine what type of program a defendant needs or what type of
sentence should be imposed. In fact Proposition 5 prevents using a
dirty test against a defendant and limits the maximum time to one year
in county jail only after a defendant has completely failed the
mandated program; no matter what crime was committed.

So if a defendant steals your car or burns down your house and claims
"drugs made me do it," they can never be sentenced to prison. Is this
fair to the victim? Is this justice? Does this sound like a good way
to reduce our prison population?

Worse yet, Proposition 5 mandates that this state set aside $610
million from our current budget for startup costs. We all witnessed
this state's last budget boondoggle and we must ask where is this
half-billion dollars going to come from? Further, this funding level
must be maintained until repealed by the voters. OK, so we will have
another un-funded state mandate that will come out of the general fund
of each county. Can Del Norte or any other rural county afford this?
The backers of Proposition 5 promise to rehabilitate drug addicts and
reduce prison overcrowding while saving taxpayer money. As your
sheriff and your district attorney, we must warn you that Proposition
5 threatens to create a fiscal and public safety disaster in our county.

All 58 elected district attorneys in the state vehemently oppose
Proposition 5. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi are
vocal opponents. So are Attorney General Jerry Brown and every former
California attorney general, the California State Sheriffs
Association, the Police Chiefs of California, MADD, former governors
Pete Wilson, Gray Davis and George Deukmejian, League of United Latin
American Citizens (LULAC) and virtually every major newspaper across
the state. Even the California Judges Association, which rarely takes
a position on state initiatives, has issued a blistering denunciation
of its provisions.

Why have so many respected organizations and public officials come out
against Proposition 5? The reason is simple. It is a bad law.