Prop 36 restored treatment-or-jail accountability

Proposition 36 passed overwhelmingly (about a 70-30 vote, in every California county) and brought balance back to drug courts after an era of over-incarceration was overcorrected into a revolving door on the streets and in ERs; it enhanced penalties for organized retail theft and created a 'treatment-mandated felony' so that on a third serious drug offense a judge can give a choice between treatment and incarceration—but the state has refused to fund it, which Mahan would fix first as governor.