San José Mayor Matt Mahan and other local Democratic leaders on Wednesday announced their support for Proposition 36, a crime reform measure on the November ballot that they hope will force eligible Californians who routinely commit drug crimes into substance abuse treatment.
“People are dying who don’t have to die, and businesses are closing that don’t have to close. There is an answer. The answer is treatment,” Mahan said at a morning news conference announcing a new fundraising committee he created alongside two other elected officials. “That’s why we’re here today to support Proposition 36. Not because we want to go back to an era of mass incarceration, but because we want to go forward to an era of mass treatment.”
Their support runs counter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and top Democrat leaders in the state Legislature who have spoken out against the measure, fearing it would return California to an ineffective tough-on-crime era that swelled the state’s prison population to unconstitutional levels.