The Board of Supervisors has ordered a report, on a motion by Supervisors Michael Antonovich, on how the county can ensure victims of misdemeanor crimes receive restitution in the same manner as victims of felonies.

“The public was very misled by proponents of Proposition 47 just as we were all misled by AB 109 when the governor told us that the probation department would be supervising “low level” offenders – fact is, nearly 70 percent of that population is high risk or very high risk – less than 2% are low level offenders,” said Antonovich.

“Now, the public is being told that Proposition 57 will only make the “non-violent” felons in state prison eligible for early release. What the public is not being told is that Proposition 57 includes crimes like rape of an unconscious person, solicitation to commit murder, first degree burglary, domestic violence and assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer — it even includes human trafficking involving a minor.”

“With respect to Prop 47, the public was told that there would be nearly $130 million in projected cost savings by the state which has not been realized,” he added. “The problem is that we are not talking about giving people second chances – we are talking about giving people a slap on the hand time and time again. In fact, one person has been re-arrested 44 times — another person 33 times, and nearly 100 lives have been taken by these so-called low-level offenders.”

Proposition 47 statistics:

– 55 people have been re-arrested 15 times.
– 222 people have been re-arrested 10 times.
– 2,108 people have been re-arrested 5 times.
– Nearly 6,000 people have been re-arrested 3 times since this law took effect.
– 50 percent of Prop 47 offenders re-offend.
– 50 percent of those go on to commit part one crimes which includes violent crimes.

Prop 47 repeat offenders have committed the following part one crimes in our county:

– 2,637 aggravated assaults
– 3,717 burglaries
– 73 arson
– 4,564 grant theft auto
– 15,620 larceny theft
– 47 forcible rapes
– 98 criminal homicides

A detailed report by the District Attorney estimates that there are over 335,000 Proposition 47 cases and over 627,000 charges where victims may have suffered losses requiring restitution. This data was produced by utilizing the same list of data that was used for the Proposition 47 outreach campaign excluding drug possession charges. The District Attorney has implemented policies and procedures to ensure that victims’ right to be notified of post-conviction hearings and case dispositions is preserved using various means available to locate them, including using DMV records, Lexis, social media and other local, state or federal databases.

Marsy’s Law, which includes the constitutional right to court ordered restitution for victims of crime, does not distinguish felony from misdemeanor. Thus, all victims, regardless of level of crime, are eligible for court-ordered restitution. This obstacle impacts more victims post-Proposition 47 because certain property crimes are no longer felonies.