The following is a letter sent to the members of the San Jose City Council from Silicon Valley De-Bug:
Dear San Jose City Council,
We are writing this letter to urge the San Jose City Council to support Councilpersons Ash Kalra’s memo to amend the recommended city position on Proposition 47 from Oppose to Support.
Proposition 47, a voter initiative on the November 2014 California Ballot, aims to reduce certain low-level felonies to misdemeanors, and to direct savings to much needed community services that can help address the underlying causes of crime and keep families together. This more thoughtful approach to public safety very much is an expression of San Jose values of fairness, economic rationality, and providing opportunities for our youth.
For our organization, Proposition 47 represents the very nexus of our work with families entangled in the criminal justice system and creating opportunities for youth. De-Bug is both, in courts with families whose loved ones face prison sentences that could destroy their lives, rather than treatment programs that could rebuild them back into contributing San Jose residents and break the cycle of incarceration. We are also at schools, where programs are under-resourced, and often leave some of San Jose’s brightest youth without the support they need to succeed. Proposition 47 can change both those realities for the better – stopping people from going to prison and having a felony on their record which has collateral consequences that will make re-entry even harder, while simultaneously investing the cost savings into truancy, drug prevention, mental health, and victim support programs to help San Jose youngsters and families succeed.
From our vantage point informed by experience, supporting Proposition 47 is a no-brainer. Frankly, it is shocking that the San Jose City Council would even consider opposing Proposition 47 — thus taking a bizarre outlier position from informed public safety leaders statewide and locally.
For the San Jose public, the City Council’s opposition of Prop. 47 has another consequence. Such a decision would result in confused, contradictory, local public safety framework at the precise time we need coherence. Our county’s leading law enforcement leader, District Attorney Jeff Rosen, has been a statewide advocate for Proposition 47, and our Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors also recently passed a resolution in support of Proposition 47. Also, as Councilperson Kalra’s memo states, a chief signatory of the Proposition is former San Jose Police Chief William Lansdowne – a nationally recognized leader in policing theory, and whose wisdom is often touted by San Jose elected officials.
For economic, ethical, and moral necessity, we urge the San Jose City Council to join local stakeholders like the Coalition for Justice and Accountability, the SV NAACP, Working Partnerships, PACT, and De-Bug in support of Proposition 47. Our city deserves to be on the right side of history on this one.
Sincerely,
Silicon Valley De-Bug Community
Do you have a news tip you would like to share? Would you like to contribute to The Left Hook? Email us at LeftHookBlog@gmail.com
No Comments