This past Friday, the 16th of May, Councilmember Tony Cardenas and I held a joint press conference addressing our opposition to the Safe Neighborhood Act. Below are some statistics from the press conference that we feel you the public needs to know about.
The taxpayer spends roughly about $46,000 a year to keep one adult in prison. It only costs between $1200 and $1300 a year to keep a kid in a prevention program and out of prison.
Main concerns of the ballot proposal include:
• It puts young people in adult jails, forcing children as young as 14 convicted of “gang-related” felonies to serve time with adult prisoners.
• It treats poor people like criminals. Those who get public housing money would be subjected to annual criminal background checks. Recent convictions would disqualify them for the aid.
• It denies bail to those merely suspected of gang-related crimes, turning their right to conditional release into an opportunity for punishment.
My colleague and I are working tirelessly to educate voters about the act, which is on the November ballot.
“By voting for this ballot measure, California will be feeding its children to the wolves,”said Councilmember Cardenas. “This archaic initiative would require the taxpayer to foot the bill and send these children to the most expensive school we pay for – prison – where they will learn how to become better criminals. This should be called the Scary Neighborhood Act, not the Safe Neighborhood Act.”
This initiative is misleading; we should be more focused on youth development, prevention and intervention, and education, this bill severely cuts funding from some our most important youth development programs and places a single-minded approach on enforcing the law. Studies have reflected that law enforcement cannot arrest its way out of issues confronting our society. We need a more balanced and thoughtful approach to addressing the communities’ needs.
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