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Californians will be voting on a ballot initiative on November 5 that, if passed, would roll back the progress our state has made on prison overcrowding and over-incarceration for nonviolent offenses. Proposition 36 would put more people behind bars for petty theft and drug possession, costing taxpayers $100 million a year and draining money from victim funds and prisoner reentry programs.
The misguided initiative wouldn’t reduce crime, but it would worsen outcomes for incarcerated people who depend on skills training programs, sober housing, and support to avoid recidivism. I should know. I’ve spent the majority of my life behind bars. I was locked up in juvenile hall when I was thirteen and spent the next 20-plus years in and out of prison. I’m now 38 years old, enrolled in college for the first time, working, and doing everything possible to stay out of prison. I’m studying law and policy so that I can better advocate for adults and children caught up in the carceral system.
I wouldn’t have gotten where I am today without the resources I was able to access in prison and upon my most recent release – resources that Prop 36 could take away.
While in prison, I took job training and resume-building classes and learned how to go on a job interview. When I got out, I moved into a sober living facility so that, this time, I didn’t end up back on the streets. For the first time, I had a safe, drug-free place to go with accountability and support, and I wasn’t left all on my own.
These programs were largely made possible because of an initiative passed overwhelmingly by California voters 10 years ago called Proposition 47. This initiative reduced some felonies to misdemeanors, freeing up space in overcrowded prisons and redirecting hundreds of millions of dollars toward local communities and reentry programs.
Proposition 47 came on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling that mandated the state of California reduce prison populations to address severe overcrowding in its prisons, which, at some points during the 2010s, were operating at nearly 200 percent capacity.
I spent time in the notorious women’s prison Chowchilla during that era of overcrowding. We had eight people in each cell, and when there were no more bunk beds left, they housed people in our day room, where we were supposed to be able to spend time when we were allowed out of our rooms. Then, they filled the gym with 200 more beds, so we could no longer use the space for exercise. All those additional people needed bathrooms, so our prison cells were opened up and shared by everyone housed in the gym or the day room. Our living conditions got less and less sanitary because keeping things clean and hygienic with so many people packed in was impossible. And because of the overcrowding, prison services were backed up, meaning that many of us lost our chances to take classes or access programming that might have helped us.
In 2014, Proposition 47 helped tackle that nightmare with humane solutions. But here we are in 2024 contending with a regressive ballot initiative that would bring the nightmare of overcrowding back.
Huge corporations like WalMart and Target, more concerned with how petty theft could impact their bottom line than with the well-being of our state, are pouring millions into Prop. 36. On the other side, our own governor, along with the ACLU and the California Democratic Party, oppose Prop. 36.
As someone locked up repeatedly for petty theft and drug possession, I know that people with addictions and people struggling in poverty need community care, not incarceration. I’m urging my fellow Californians to vote no on Prop. 36. Let’s create a better future for our state, not roll back the progress we’ve already made.
Vanessa Vasquez is a formerly incarcerated Californian and a volunteer with the abolitionist organizations Sister Warriors and the Anti Recidivism Coalition
