Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Arrests for Drug Possession After California Proposition 47, 2011–2016

Abstract

Reducing criminal penalties for drug possession can reduce racial/ethnic disparities in criminal justice exposure and has implications for improving health inequalities linked to social determinants of health.

Effect of scaling back punishment on racial and ethnic disparities in criminal case outcomes

“…Several researchers have evaluated the public safety impacts of Prop 47 (Bartos & Kubrin, 2018;Dominguez-Rivera, Lofstrom, & Raphael, 2019), concluding that there is little evidence of an effect of the proposition on violent crime but evidence of small-to-moderate effects on larceny. Relevant to this study, Mooney et al (2018) found that Black-White disparities in the rates of monthly drug arrests reduced sharply after the passage Prop 47. Lofstrom, Martin, and Raphael (2019) found that Prop 47 narrowed racial disparities in arrests and incarceration rates statewide, with arrest rate differentials for some offenses (drug felonies in particular) narrowing by more than half.…”

The Criminal Justice System and More Lenient Drug Policy: Three Case Studies on California's Changes to How Its Criminal Justice System Addresses Drug Use

“…Part of the text of Proposition 47 called for savings from supervising fewer people to be diverted to increase social services in communities. In the last year, savings from Proposition 47 were used to provide grants for jurisdictions to implement public health approaches to deal with problem behaviors (Mooney et al, 2018). It remains to be seen if this money is used more effectively to rehabilitate members in the community than using CS or custodial sanctions.…”

“…Moreover, because there is no limit on the number of Proposition 47-eligible crimes one may commit, a consistent complaint from law enforcement was that the law had emboldened some individuals to commit low-level crimes without fear of punishment (Saslow, 2015). Interviews and arrest data indicate that local law enforcement officials appear to have reacted by making much fewer arrests altogether (Associated Press, 2016;Bird et al, 2018;Mooney et al, 2018). Even if this helps achieve one Realignment goal, mainly decreasing the burden on criminal justice agencies, it may come at the expense of the longer-term goal of rehabilitating the realigned population if counties don't adjust to the new landscape.…”

Tuskegee as a History Lesson, Tuskegee as Metaphor: Addressing Discrimination as a Social Determinant of Health in the Classroom

“…Racial disparities in the United States prison system offer a clear example: In 2018, African Americans accounted for 32% of the prison population but only 13% of the general US population, with rates of incarceration nearly 7 times as high as White Americans [ 12 ]. This disparity is the direct result of racial discrimination in policing and sentencing, including differential rates of arrest for nonviolent crimes such as drug possession and racial disparities in rates of imprisonment and referral for drug treatment programs [ 13 ]. Disparities in incarceration rates remain an equally salient part of the ongoing racial disparities seen in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) [ 14 ].…”