LEGISLATIVE NEWS: Harsher punishment for serial offenders - AB 1599 repeals Proposition 47
AB 1599 and AB 1603: Harsher punishments for serial offenders and retail thefts
California voters in 2014 passed Proposition 47, one of the three laws that creates a trifecta of a ballot measure that recategorized some nonviolent crimes, such as writing bad checks and shoplifting, as misdemeanors instead of felonies.
Now, amid a rise in some lawmakers are looking to undo parts of the law to try to further deter thefts.
A.B. 1603 would make it so that a person who steals more than $400 of goods could be charged with a felony. The current threshold is $950.
A.B. 1599 would repeal Proposition 47 altogether and change a litany of crimes now considered misdemeanors back into felonies. Proposition 47 (weirdly called “The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act” made it impossible to lock up serial offenders for drug and property crimes.
Both of these bills would have to be approved by voters to be enacted.
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