SANDAG released key findings Thursday of a study related to the effects of Proposition 47 since California voters passed the prop last November.
Prop 47 is a law that reduces some low-level felonies to misdemeanors and could free up thousands of prison inmates.
SANDAG’s Criminal Justice Research Division examined the effects of the prop over the past five months. Among key findings, SANDAG said the Public Defender’s Office has filed approximately 18,000 petitions requesting cases be reclassified.
The District Attorney’s Office has reviewed an average of 200 cases per week, the study says.
Nearly 4,000 cases have been reviewed as of March 26, 2015. Of those cases, the SANDAG study says 1,906 – or 48 percent – were eligible for reclassification.
In terms of misdemeanor prosecutions, the study says the San Diego City Attorney’s Office has seen an increase of approximately 24 percent in the number of drug and theft-related cases it received since the passing of Prop 47.
On Nov. 3, 2014 – the day before voters passed the prop – the total jail population in San Diego was 5,782. As of March 23, 2015, it had dropped to 4,900, according to SANDAG.
The study is part of SANDAG’s ongoing quest to monitor crime and arrest trends across the region. The full findings can be read here.
