Commentary: Proposition 36 created 'treatment-mandated felonies.' What it really created is a complicated mess

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Set us as preferred A few years ago, when viral videos of marauding packs of smash-and-grab thieves and open drug markets in San Francisco seemed to be everywhere, a group of tough-on-crime conservatives mashed the two issues together and created Proposition 36 — a set of new laws that supposedly would combine addiction treatment with punishment for those who refused or failed to kick their miscreant ways.Voters, fed up with perceived lawlessness, were supportive, passing the measure statewide by nearly 70% in 2024 — buying into the idea that it would bring more access to recovery in lieu of incarceration.Flash forward to 2026 and the realities of Proposition 36 are far from what most voters likely thought they were approving.

It would not be too much of a stretch to call the implementation of Proposition 36 a steaming hot mess — one that has put California on the path of dealing with chronic homelessness through stints of incarceration.“The big promise of Proposition 36 was that folks struggling with addiction could have access to treatment, complete that treatment, and then it wouldn’t impact their record,” said Maureen Washburn, senior policy manager with the nonprofit Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.

“But what we’re seeing is like less than 1% of people have realized that benefit.Instead, many, many more are getting arrested.”Proposition 36 created a new kind of serious crime — the “treatment-mandated felony.” So far, that has translated to about 40,000 new felony arrests statewide on drug or theft charges, many of them petty theft from repeat offenders, or repeat drug possession charges.

Though the data are incomplete and flawed, of 10,937 felony drug cases tracked by 29 courts that reported to the state, 1,305 defendants elected to receive treatment.Of these, 36 successfully completed ...