San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and other local Democratic leaders announced Wednesday their support for Proposition 36, a crime reform measure on the November ballot that they hope will require eligible Californians who regularly commit drug crimes to enter drug treatment.
“People are dying who shouldn’t have died and businesses are closing when they shouldn’t have had to close. There is a solution. The solution is treatment,” Mahan said at a morning news conference announcing a new fundraising committee he and two other elected officials have formed. “That’s why we’re here today to support Proposition 36. Not because we want to go back to an era of mass incarceration, but because we want to move forward to an era of mass treatment.”
Their support runs counter to that of Gov. Gavin Newsom and top Democratic leaders in the state Legislature who have spoken out against the measure, fearing it will return California to an era of ineffective crime enforcement that swelled the state’s prison population to unconstitutional levels.
But Mahan, who was recently re-elected, said Proposition 36 would help provide needed treatment for people addicted to the deadly drug fentanyl by requiring court-mandated detoxification treatment for those convicted of a third drug offense. The measure would also amend parts of Proposition 47, a decade-old referendum measure that downgraded some nonviolent property and drug offenses from felonies to misdemeanors in an effort to reduce the prison population.
He was one of the first major city mayors to support the referendum measure, along with Mayors London Breed of San Francisco and Todd Gloria of San Diego.
Eight lawmakers have already endorsed Proposition 36 this week. Meanwhile, Senate President pro tempore Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) and several members of the Legislative Black Caucus have opposed the measure.
Mahan created the new committee to support Proposition 36 alongside Sacramento District Attorney Tien Ho and Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen. They have been vocal supporters of the district attorney’s ballot initiative and draw connections to homelessness, the fentanyl crisis and rising retail thefts, which are the three cornerstones of the November ballot measure.
The Proposition 36 campaign has received more than $9 million in support from major retail companies, including Walmart, Home Depot, Target and In-N-Out Burger.
