Prop 36 could make California’s prison issues worse: ‘A lot of it is fear-mongering’

CHOWCHILLA, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The passing of Proposition 36 by California voters last year was welcomed in Fresno County by District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp and Sheriff John Zanoni, with Smittcamp saying that it shows “the people in California are tired of this chaos.”

Proposition 36 increased penalties for certain theft and drug crimes and was designed to reverse some of the effects of Proposition 47. While supporters say it targets serial offenders, critics say it could do more harm than good.

Executive Director with the Pollen Initiative Jesse Vasquez says Prop 36 could make things worse. The Pollen Initiative is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating media centers inside prisons nationwide so those behind bars can tell their stories.

Before Vasquez was Executive Director, he says he experienced incarceration at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.

“I was formerly incarcerated from the age of 17 to 36,” Vasquez said. “I got sentenced to a couple of life terms for multiple shootings, aggravated assault, attempted murder and some gang-related activity.”

While in prison, Vasquez says writing became his coping mechanism, and journalism became an avenue for advocacy. Since Vasquez’s release in 2019, he has volunteered in various high schools and continued his advocacy work. Vasquez also helped launch a newspaper at the nation’s largest women’s rehabilitation center: the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.

He says one of the newspaper’s goals is to undo the stigma surrounding incarcerated people and make a positive impact on legislation – such as Prop 36.

“An issue like Prop 36 passes, it affects everybody. It doesn’t just target one demographic,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez says voters have not considered what the outcome of their vote might mean for incarcerated people because they did not have all the facts available.

“[Voters] are just reacting to what they see in the media, and a lot of it is fear-mongering,” Vasquez said. “I think when it came to Prop 36, they responded more on what they saw in the media rather than the actual facts.”

Vasquez adds that without significant efforts to rehabilitate people in prison, Prop 36 could put people behind bars with no opportunity for them to ever be rehabilitated.

“I’m not a big fan of like locking them up and throwing away the key,” Vasquez said. “If you take Prop 57 out of the picture and you increase the penalties like Prop 36, you take away all the discretion and all the power that the Department of Corrections had to incentivize rehabilitation.”

According to Vasquez, without efforts to rehabilitate incarcerated people, inmates are doomed to stay behind bars.

Vasquez says that, through publications like the CCWF’s Paper Trail in-prison newspaper, he hopes incarcerated people will publicise their own stories and make sure they are taken into consideration by lawmakers and the public.

“We send it to the governor’s office, every warden, everybody who works in the department, and who is a stakeholder,” Vasquez said. “We believe that informing them gives them at least the option to do something about it.”

Proposition 36 was passed by the voters of California in the November 2024 election.