‘All we’re doing is setting people up for failure.’ Prop 36 opponents say forced drug treatment will do more harm than good

Niki Jones was outside the Sacramento County’s Main Jail Downtown as people filtered in and out on a busy morning. 

“This building does not have solutions for the social health issues that we face,” she said. 

Jones is pretty familiar with the jail and the challenges inmates face both inside and once they’re released She heads an advocacy group called the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. And, as a UC San Francisco report shows, she’s aware that formerly incarcerated people are ten times more likely to be homeless. 

“Even a short stay in jail has really significant impacts on somebody's capacity to stay employed, on somebody's capacity to stay housed,” Jones said. 

She said she has concerns about the effect Proposition 36 would have on the people on the other side of this jailhouse wall. If approved, opponents say the measure and its increased penalties could mean former inmates return to jail more often than under current law.

Prop 36 is a widely supported, tough-on-crime measure on California’s November ballot. If it passes, it will raise penalties for some theft and drug-related crimes. It’s billed as a way to curb retail theft and homelessness, which have both increased since the pandemic, especially in the state’s urban areas. 

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The measure has divided Democrats, with some like Governor Gavin Newsom saying it will return California to an era of mass incarceration following years of criminal justice reform. Meanwhile, some Democratic mayors in San Jose, San Francisco and elsewhere have said it’s necessary to curb crime in some of the state’s biggest cities.

Notably, Prop 36 would also create the “treatment-mandated felony,” which would increase the number of people forced into substance use care. 

Opponents, like Jones, are concerned that approach to treatment could make the problem worse. They say treatment won’t work unless individuals are ready to voluntarily accept it.

“All we're doing is setting people up for failure,” she said, “which does come in the form of criminal penalties.”

Data shows property crimes including auto thefts and shoplifting have increased substantially since the pandemic, though overall crime rates remain well below what they were in the 1980s and 1990s.

Jones said she understands why Prop 36 is on the ballot this year. 

“What people are seeing is widespread poverty, substance use disorders being prevalent, a poisonous drug market that has overdoses skyrocketing,” she said. “And people are rightly concerned.”

But she said she doubts a ballot measure with no funding attached to it can seriously impact those issues. 

“Treatment is the window dressing language to allow some Democrats to justify their vote for a return to mass incarceration,” she argued. 

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho supports the measure and said it meets the moment. He’s taken an aggressive approach to cleaning up Sacramento’s streets, and even sued the city for what he said was its failure to enforce anti-camping homelessness laws, drug crimes and other quality of life concerns in downtown. 

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Sacramento County Health Director Dr. Ryan Quist is less optimistic. 

“The go-to answer is, ‘I can't do it,’” he said. 

The RAND Corporation – a nonpartisan think tank – reported earlier this year that California counties consistently lack capacity for substance use disorder treatment. 

“We need facilities, we need workforce, and we need funding for services,” Quist said. 

He said the money for treatment is there, but not so much for creating new beds. Either way, they’re slow to come online, the health director added. 

And that’s not all he’s struggling with. 

“We are in an unprecedented workforce crisis,” he said. 

He added there’s little evidence that forced treatment works. 

“It is a fine line that we walk,” Quist said. “We don't want to see people involuntarily treated for substance use disorders.”

On a fall morning, people living in tents on a mostly empty lot on Sacramento’s South Side started to stir. Dogs barked as a street medicine team approached and offered socks, water and consultations. 

They went looking for Patty Holden first — they know she has been camping here, and usually, whatever camp she’s in, she takes a leadership role. 

Sometimes that’s because she’s cooking a stir fry. 

“I have about 150 different recipes for that,” Holden laughed. 

And other times, it’s because she knows how to find health care and addiction treatment, or just a friendly listener.  

“I come from a family that has a lot of mental health issues and health issues and stuff, so I tend to be a very caring person with people,” she said. 

Holden said California’s increasingly strict approach on drugs and homelessness, including Prop 36, could backfire.

“There's gonna be a lot more crimes,” she predicted. “There's gonna be a lot more substance use because this is stressful.”

Holden said theft and drug use are going to happen as long as people aren’t getting their basic needs met.