Ballot Initiative to Amend California’s Prop 47 Gains Momentum

Since passage of Prop 47, its critics say the state has increasingly become a paradise for vagrants, drug users, drug traffickers, and thieves.

A security guard watches the entrance to a Louis Vuitton store, which has had its windows boarded near Union Square in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 30, 2021. Stores have increased security in response to a spike in thefts. Ethan Swope/Getty Images

A referendum to amend California’s much-criticized Proposition 47 (Prop 47) has already collected nearly 500,000 signatures in less than a month.

Prop 47 as a ballot measure was passed by California voters on Nov. 5, 2014. It aims to reduce the prison population by reclassifying some crimes, such as drug possession, theft, shoplifting, identity theft, receiving stolen property, and check fraud, as misdemeanors. It also raises the threshold for felony charges from $450 to $950, resulting in thefts under $950, even for repeated offenders, being classified as misdemeanors without the need for imprisonment.