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Dear Editor,
In his op ed piece of October 6, 2024 Adam Gaska explained his support for California ballot proposition 36 and his criticism of the Ukiah City Council for failing to endorse it. Since Mr. Gaska cited only one of the several reasons I offered at the meeting in support of my “No” vote, I would like to take this opportunity to more fully explain my position on Proposition 36.
I admire Mr. Gaska’s dedication to cleaning up homeless encampments and his sincere attempts to address this enormous problem. Unfortunately, in my view, he has been lured into believing the false promises touted by Proposition 36.
Dubbed the “Homeless, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act,” Proposition 36 is the wrong solution to all of these problems. It does nothing to alleviate homelessness and Mr. Gaska does not suggest that it does. Surely, here in Ukiah, we have a profound problem with retail theft, drug addiction and homelessness but 36 plays on the deep concerns and anger of well-intentioned voters without offering real solutions.
Prop 36 increases prison time for those who use drugs despite evidence that imprisonment for drug possession does not reduce drug use. Charging people with serious crimes that could result in imprisonment or jail is not going to lead to treatment. While it imposes mandated drug treatment in some cases, it will reduce funding and availability of such treatment. Moreover, eighteen California counties have no drug treatment programs.
Prop 36 includes no plan to increase services for drug addiction or getting those who need it most, i.e. the people on the street into treatment or wraparound services. Charging people with serious crimes that could result in imprisonment or jail will not lead to the treatment Prop 36 purports to mandate. And under the provisions of 36, someone who enters rehab and relapses as is common would be subject to incarceration for failing to complete a treatment program.
And what happens when the increased numbers of those incarcerated are released? It is well-documented that homelessness often follows release from jail or prison. In fact, according to a recent statewide study of homelessness, 19% of people experiencing homelessness or nearly 35,000 people on any given night enter homelessness from a prison or prolonged jail stay.
Prop 36 would return California to our worst days of ineffective mass incarceration while stripping approximately $100 million annually in funding for drug treatment, housing, re-entry services and school truancy prevention, the very things proven to prevent crime in the first place. The effect of 36 will be to cause more Californians to languish in jail or prison on low-level offenses while it will cost taxpayers an additional $5 billion a year on top of the $27 billion all ready devoted to jails, prisons and courts.
Moreover, in light of recent legislative reforms, the need for Prop 36 is questionable. The legislature passed and Governor Newsom recently signed comprehensive enhancements to criminal law for both retail theft and drug sales, particularly fentanyl for which there is now a three-year sentence enhancement for anyone selling more than a kilogram. District attorneys can add together thefts that are related, i.e., multiple thefts from the same store in the same week if they are less than $950 (the current ceiling for a misdemeanor charge) in value and charge them as a felony while police can arrest even if they do not witness a crime. Additionally, residential burglary, robbery and grand theft are all ready felonies.
The misguided “solutions” offered by the proponents of Prop 36 will not address the frustrations of California residents regarding housing, substance abuse and retail theft. If passed, we will see more people cycling in and out of prisons and jails without a chance to get better. Prop 36 also fails to address the root causes of homelessness that are often due to the high costs of housing rather than solely because of addiction and substance abuse.
As a Ukiah City Council member, I refused to endorse Prop 36 because this measure exploits public anger and frustration without effectively addressing the issues it purports to resolve.
Susan Sher
Member, Ukiah City Council
Vote YES on 36 my friends and neighbors!
At what point do you stop making excuses for people’s addiction? There are so many opportunities given to people in California from addiction treatment to free housing. There is a point when taxpayers are tired of public officials screaming ch as you giving away valuable resources for people who will never fit into society.
At some point you have to take off the rose tinted glasses and realize there is no such thing as a utopian society. There will always be dysfunctional people who will always have to be in jails, prisons, or mental health institutions.
Yet another good reason to oppose annexation of the entire Ukiah Valley.
We also as a society can’t seem to grapple with the fact that adverse childhood experiences lead to addiction. We have to stop the next generation of kids from being traumatized. Naturally this letter, the prop and schools don’t address this.
I am sympathetic to addicts, in fact as a codependent I LOVE addicts. But any counselor, psychiatrist, al anon group, or sponsor would tell us to stop trying to save the addict, to let them suffer the consequences and to start looking after ourselves and our children. To set boundaries. To set morals. To stop putting up with defecation on the streets. To start investing in ourselves, our health and our children’s health.
Currently parents have to check for needles at public parks and have frank discussions about what’s going on with these “others”(street addicts). I’m honest with my kids. I tell then they probably had a rough childhood, then started using drugs to medicate their pain, that now they’re like a child that never grew up. I tell my kids about noticing how you feel. When you feel stressed beyond reason, if you’re always sad, if you want to die, to get help.
I will not however teach my kids that street addict lifestyle is an option. I will not excuse it, it will not be taught to my kids as a viable escape plan. And that’s what it is now, street life is a viable escape plan.
Yes on 36
While we’re at it, alcohol companies need to help pay for this mental health mess they’ve created. Alcohol is the absolute driver in this, it’s the drug we’ve sympathized with the longest. It’s so acceptable, so woven into our economy and society it’s disgusting. Our teachers, cops and nurses and street people are drunks.
This letter to the editor, prop 36, the jail, these rehab centers are all trying to deal with the symptoms of childhood trauma. Clean the streets yes, but get in the schools and teach kids not to steal, not to rape, to have boundaries, to ask for help!! To know when something is wrong, even if it’s “normal” to that kid. What the hell good is state testing if we’re forgetting to tell the kids they matter?
We need laws to set healthy limits for those that were never taught boundaries as children, and children need to grow up knowing they will not be allowed to turn into a street wanderer, even if they are unwell.
Yes on 36
Thanks for writing. Fully agree that this is at best tangentially related to the issues we face in Ukiah.
I tend to agree with the long term outlook Sher has on the homeless. I also see this Prop as a frustration vote by the public that is boiling over due to inaction from our state gov’t on housing or solving the magnitude of the problem. I also think the US and state gov’t should open mental wards again. (Not run by the private sector) The temple of 10K buddhas was the original site of a large mental ward that dealt with complex problems of mental illness.
Thank you Councilmember Susan Sher for your continued principled and logical approach to issues. There is a widespread belief that misdemeanors carry no consequences – and that we need Prop 36 to bump up theft and drug crimes to felonies. If authorities wish to pursue misdemeanors, the culprit can get 6 months in jail and a $1,000 fine – right now – WITHOUT Prop. 36. Go to SNOPES and ask if the old CA Prop 47 allow baddies to steal up to $950 without consequences. The answer is No – the claim is False. Ask your friendly, local defense attorney. I did – Atty. Erick Rennet confirms that existing law does provide for jailing misdemeanor theft and drug violations. There IS a problem here – but Prop 36 is not going to address it.
What Ms. Sher won’t address is the Supreme Court already ruled on homelessness making it illegal to camp or form encampments and gave cities and counties the right to enforce laws already in place. In long winded response she basically is telling you she doesn’t care about the homeless or the citizens. She thinks everything is just fine. She just want empty jails. This is exactly why we need to vote her out!!
Prop 36 addresses the craziness of laws that have been manipulated to enable the criminal to commit more crime. Drug addicts to do more drugs with no consequences. Ms. Sher supports this, bottom line.
And don’t get me started on idling cars.
And the supreme court isn’t crazy and manipulated?
Susan, you talk a lot about “evidence” but you rarely cited any sources at all. You know what evidence I have? For 25-30 years now California has been touting how rehabilitation is the name of the game, rehabilitation is what we need to do and is important and sentences and incarceration don’t make any difference.
Well guess what, we have 25-30 years of real data and experience on how this whole rehabilitation agenda has worked out and it has been an utter and complete failure. You know what did work? Locking people up for committing crimes. Plain and simple. You can share whatever woke rhetoric you want, but anyone who has been around here for more than a minute can you tell how much better things were when we actually locked people up for committing crimes, ya know, back in the 3 strikes days?
What about the three strikes laws which have been around in CA prior to the Prop?
While I agree the war on drugs has proven to be ineffective, relying on the state to be the savior for addicts has been equally as effective if not less. Sher is delusional and perhaps senile if she believes any different. All recovered addicts know the state cannot cure them, only they have the power to stop by allowing their higher power to take over. This higher power cannot be substituted by the state. We must all be accountable for our actions regardless of our sobriety. It’s time to stop making excuses and time for the rule of law. If you violate the rights of others there should be consequences. If reform in jail is the consequence so be it. Ukiah has being turned into a zombie land because of the failed policies Susan Sher continues to support. Yes on 36 and Yes on recall Sher.
Remember folks, Susan Sher and other far left liberalists are ruining our Country and our communities. Her lack of care for the ongoing theft and drug issues that are rampant in our community are the cause for businesses closing their doors, prices escalating and unprecedented drug crimes. Susan Sher not supporting Prop 36 should be a wake up call for citizens living in the City of Ukiah to remember her voting record and vote her out of office when her term is up in 2026.
Mrs Sher, Prop 36 isn’t just about drugs. It’s about giving the DA’s the ability to prosecute re-offenders. The ability to look at the criminal and the crime and give them the ability to say enough is enough. Stop trying to make this a homeless issue! It’s people like you that got us here in the first place.
Sher is asking for more people not cycling in and out of prisons and jails with more chances to get worse.
She extolls three years for a kilo of Fentanyl. Do you realize how many deaths a kilo of Fentanyl can cause?
Thanks for the letter Susan. Your stupidity and unfitness to hold office were well displayed.
Prop 47 destroyed our state. It created the problems we are seeing now. Prop 36 gives the tools the justice system needs, to help in addressing the issue. Susan I hope you read the entire measure with the changes in the law. I do not believe homelessness is the problem. I think we have leadership that does not understand, or have the experience in dealing with these issues. Return some normalcy to our community. Vote yes on 36 and vote out the leadership that got us here.
I find it unfortunate that the bills title even includes the word homelessness. Even though the crime and blight we are all seeing is in some ways tied to homelessness, I think they do need to be separated because they are separate issues although they sometimes intersect. Not all homeless people steal or abuse drugs and not all people who steal and/or abuse drugs are homeless. We really need to focus on discouraging actions we don’t condone (chronic, open drug abuse that endangers public health and theft) that deserve punishment and situations we don’t like and should address in ways that aren’t punitive (homelessness).
I readily admit that Prop 36 is not the end all, cure all. Issues as complex and nuanced as drug abuse, crime, and homelessness require multiple approaches, constant monitoring and strategy shifts. They aren’t issues that will be solved, only managed.
I can’t speak for other counties because I don’t live in them nor do I look at their data. I live in Mendocino County and look at our data. What I see is that we are spending tens of millions of dollars for behavioral health, social services, etc. We don’t have a comprehensive system to track the outcomes of the spending as we only track what we are spending it on. We have no measurement for how successful our programs and services are other than anecdotal evidence of what we see on a day to day basis which for most, look to be an utter failure. I have started to look through the contracts and money’s being spent. I applied to join the Behavioral Health Advisory Board and was turned down (which is another story that will be made public soon). It’s my belief that we are spending more than enough money but we aren’t prioritizing the programs we should be.
As for mass incarceration, most would be headed to the County jail, not state prison. Measure B is funding part of the new County jail which is now under construction. The current jail is at 60% according to Sheriff Kendall and with the new addition, it will be at 40%. Having enough capacity will not be an issue. This is an opportunity where we have local control through the BHAB and Measure B committee to ensure that the Sheriff follows through by integrating the jail into our behavioral health system of services and continuum of care dealing with homelessness.
Newsom and the legislature’s new policy changes are an attempt to sway people away from supporting Prop 36 and it,s too little, too late. In some ways, Prop 47 looks good on paper in terms of savings. In reality, it doesn’t look better. Many retailers have stopped reporting theft or even having employees respond to it. During the cleanup of encampment I have been involved with, I have seen evidence of theft from stores, businesses and people. The Ackerman Creek cleanup alone I estimate cost over $30,000 if we had to pay for everything, including labor, which was all donated. If you accounted or all the things that were stolen, it would easily cost double that. Factor in the effect on our quality of life, and it seems more expensive to allow theft and open drug abuse to remain without serious consequence.
Yes, Prop 36 is not a one and done. We also need judges to follow through with appropriate sentences. Recently, a woman who broke into a house owned by my boss was released from the County jail even though during her preliminary hearings her mental competency was in doubt, putting her criminal proceedings in abeyance. She has a hearing in 2 weeks for a report from psychiatrists on her mental competency and if she is found incompetent, she will be conserved. Now she is back on the street. As with everything, a community effort to maintain a system that balances the needs and rights of the individual and the community at large is required.
Ultimately, Prop 36 is about balancing out the needs of people who are victims of self harm and circumstance with public safety. People who are addicted to drugs or homeless deserve and require our help. This does not give them the right to harm the community at large through chronic theft, open drug use that litters creeks and public spaces with used needles, and the general blight that accompanies unsanctioned homeless encampments.
Regardless of the outcome of Prop 36, we still need to do more.
Regardless of the
Well said.
Please vote idiots like this out of office. Ooof!