New Poll Shows Majority of Voters Want Changes to Proposition 47
(Berkeley, CA) — A majority of California voters are calling for changes to a ballot measure that reduced “low-level felonies” to misdemeanors. Assemblyman Jim Patterson believes voters are seeing an uptick in violent crime as a result of Prop 47. According to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, 59-percent of Californians support changing Prop 47. Seventy-eight-percent of people surveyed believe crime has risen statewide over the last year. Prop 47 reduced some theft and drug crimes to misdemeanors to prevent overcrowding at prisons and save the state money. Patterson says overcrowding in prisons is not the issue. By a margin of two to one, those polled believe Prop 47 needs to be changed and returned to when property crimes were prosecuted as felonies.
