Jordan Poverty Q2
California’s voter-approved Proposition 47 has successfully reduced incarceration, already saved the state hundreds of millions of dollars and reallocated that money back into local communities to fund proven crime prevention programs. Using Prop. 47 savings, programs have been created in communities up and down the state that are helping address the drivers of crime and preventing it from occurring in the first place. For the first time, California has a treatment and prevention infrastructure that millions of Californians have needed for generations. And crime has remained at historically low levels. Prop. 47’s success offers a glimpse into what would be possible if state leaders committed to focusing as much on prevention as we do on punishment and funded to scale community-based programs aimed at stopping the cycle of crime. Reducing the amount of money the state continues to waste every year on ineffective prisons and meeting the needs of those struggling with mental health issues and addiction, and survivors of crime in need of help dealing with their trauma, will allow us to create safer, healthier and more successful communities. California has a re-entry ecosystem but it doesn’t have a re-integration ecosystem – people re-enter society but there’s no effort to reintegrate them back into the economy. That failure is what drives poverty after incarceration.
