California's Proposition 47 and Criminal Justice Policies

• Criminal justice policies have the potential to exacerbate socio-economic inequalities by imposing collateral consequences on those with criminal records, and by diverting public spending towards punitive programs rather than crime prevention and drug treatment.

• One key development in this area is California's reclassification of a number of low-level offenses from felonies to misdemeanors under Proposition 47 in 2014. This initiative is intended to reduce prison admissions and to spare many low-level offenders the collateral consequences of a felony conviction.

• The law also redirects a portion of state prison savings – estimated to be $150-$250 million annually – to crime prevention and drug treatment programs.

Explore the impacts of California's Proposition 47, which reclassified low-level offenses and redirected state prison savings towards crime prevention and drug treatment programs. Understand how criminal justice policies can exacerbate socio-economic inequalities and impose collateral consequences on those with criminal records.