and the italian navy has saved 150,000 migrants from the mediterranean and that's all coming to an end. and find out why marathon officials are having second thoughts.

and whether to down grade a long list of crimes from the felonies to misdemeanors, will the punishment fit the crime, it is inside story. when meshes were rivered by newscast featuring the horrifying images of victims, the momentum pushed for higher policies. that was then, this is now violent crime is much lower, and america's biggest cities have led those decreases not lagged them.

and now california home to one out of every eight americans and a giant and sometimed overcrowded state prison system, is voting on whether to keep a number of crimes on the books as felonies or redefine them. and it's our focus this time on the program. elections text elections are less than a week away, not only will they decide the fate, but many of their prisoners. it would turn a number of property offenses into misdemeanor. and reduce california's chronic prison overcrowding. advocateds say it will save the state between 150, and $250 million a year. forgery and fraud, personal use of most ill heel drugs, and if

pasted, prop 47 will be implemented retroactively, an estimated 10,000 inmates currently serving time in california, could be eligible for a sentence reduction, if they don't have a history of violence crime, and past risk assessment tests. as election day approaches pro and anti-ads for prop 47 are regular t.v. fair. proposition gives the opportunity for women who have been arrested for miner offensed to come back. >> prop 47 is a bad idea, it reclassified numerous felonies to misdemeanor. what does that mean? criminals who steal a gun likely receive no jail time. criminal whose steal your identity, no jail time. even when they commit those crimes over and over and over. >> polls show nearly 60% of

californians favor prop 47, they call the initiative the safe neighborhood and schools act, because that's the name of the fund to be created with the money saves which developed alternatives to incarceration, and 10% is slated for victim compensation. it costs the statement of california an estimated $60,000 to incarcerate an inmate for a year. i worked in juvenile for years and i have seen how the prison system works it is just like kids go in, and it is like a school to become criminals. >> prop 47 comes five years after california received a court order to fix it's overwhelmed prison system, and two years after californians voted to overrule the state's three strikes rule

innocencing stealen property, judge possession, as serious crime as a move away from using punishment as deterrence, or is this driven by dollars cents and the cost of incarceration. what dave rise to this? what's the impetus how to punish these offenses? i can tell you in my experience, i have watched this growing population of people in prison. we built 12 prisons and

one university. it is 62,000, we need to be smart on crime, and the way you get smart on crime is to do what is effective, and what is effective and works is prevention. we are looking into takings $5 billion, 50% that's the number from the prisons about 50% are receiving help for mental illness and or drug addiction we need to prevent that, we are a sick community, this is smart on crime. >> has life in america, changed in a way that we might experience with jailing fewer people and when we do jail them, jail them for shorter periods of time? i think this is a common mistake, and public prosecutors that we do believe in prevention, and we already have a

significant number of programs existing in the criminal justice system. to rout people out of the prison system, and this policy this prop 47 is contrary to public safety, and you will find that police and sheriff and prosecutors across california oppose this, and there's a reason, that z that's because it is dangerous, if we start making certain thins a million dollars, there's no consequence. we are decriminalizing theft and drugs and that's dangerous. people don't go to prison for simply possessing drugs, they go to prison because of criminal histories. wilt i am, let's unpack what the prosecutor had to say, you're a long time lawful person, as you noted yourself, are other chiefs in california supported the reduction of sentence and

reductions the way you are. >> but in talking to chiefs personally, they certainly see the wisdom, in what we are trying to do, and the scare tactics, these are people, 10,000 is what we are looking at, are coming out within the next year. our prisons are overcrowded and we need to save room for those people that commit crimes. if you possess steal after this goes into effect, a stolen gun, that's loaded it is a felony. if you break support by officially a to get the gun it is a felony. you break into a car and get it it is a felony. when they get support

from family, and religious aspect of local enforcement. >> isn't the chief right to the degree that the underlying crimes that often accompany these will remain felonies while many of these individual counts will be downgraded as million dollars? well, that's not necessarily true, if you look at for instance, possession of date rape drugs with all due respect, and at the risk of being a cynic, i don't believe people possess those for personal use. they possess them so they can commit a sexual assault, just because they haven't committed it doesn't mean we should treat that person differently. the reality is that will be a misdemeanor with virtually probably in all circumstances in jail time if you steal a firearm, lit be a million dollars, and in our county alone, in the last eight or nine months we have had 300 plus guns stolen.

as we look at sentencing patterns and state laws over the last 30 plus years since drug use really escalated, is it fair to say that the skids were greeced on the way up, but things are very sticky on the way down, isn't it hard to reexam these laws whenever you want to do it? getting tough on crime, primarily through harsh penalties that it is difficult to start to

turn that around, what we are seeing, though, i think, is that there's a growing bipartisan movement to reconsider some of these policies. we get in congress, long time liberal democrats, like senator leahey, so thek is getting more towards what will help public safety, and what is the most cost effective way. >> isn't part of this between some of the lions of the left and right, being pushed along of the fearsome costs of keeping a lot of people in prison? >> particularly the state level. california is exhibit a, it is just the charge has

clash with each other, as the prison numbers went un, support for higher education, and it is a question now i think of policy makers and the voters say where do they want to be a generation from now do they want to continue to build, or do they want to instead build college classrooms. >> we will be back with more inside story, on al jazeera america, after a short break, when we return, i will ask my guests whether being ready to accept a marginally higher rate of some crimes can be leveraged against the huge cost of keeping someone behind bars. a cost benefit analysis, stay with us.

we are back with inside story. california's proposition 47 this time on the program, a proposal on the ballot dui that would drop a group of crimes from the felonies to million dollarss. bringing along with that lighter penalties. ray schubert do you oppose this for all these on the list or just some of these that you see danger in. >> i think all the crimes they have lists here are dangerous. i think it is important for people to understand, the programs that we already have to try to address individuals drug

addiction probables. across california and the reality for someone to go to prison for drug related crimes they have to have had a significant record. and we are now at the point they have committed some other crime. sew i oppose it in a sense for a multiple of reasons. there's no incentive any more for anybody to get that treatment that we believe in, that's why our drug court courts haven so successful, because we do have that felony over their head, and it sent vises them to get that treatment they need. >> a lot of people have agitated for more diversion, less incarceration, for the use and possession of drugs, but if you possess those drugs, aren't you a

link in a long chain of felonies? ends with you putting a needle in your arm, or a substance up your nose. can we remove that person from the long series of events that ends maybe in their home, or in an alleyway or a caparks somewhere. >> very much so, there are a lot of camps, texas is the closest one we are familiar with they have done this, they have closed down throe of their prisons since '09. and able to save $1 billion that's money you can reinvest in schools. i have talked to so many times that say they can't get help, they don't know where to get help, it isn't available for their kids and for themselves. the system that the opposition is proposing has ended with a 62% recitizen vim rate, what they are proposing is

what is going on that is not working, this is something that is smart on crime, it starts to redirect things to prevention, it treats and helps kids and people, that are in desperate need of mental health and addiction issues. >> isn't incarceration the most expensive option. >> there's no question it cost as significant amount of money, the question is are the individuals that we release, are they truly nonviolent offenders. our responsible is to protect the community, when you let out individuals, eight, 10,000 people who have prior records of carjacking, robbery, kid p thatting. when the fact is they have proven to be dangerous for california. the same would be true for someone that possess as date rape drug, do you believe that person is not

dangerous? and we should just say there's no consequence for that type of crime? it was my understanding if you were a kidnapped or armed robber you wouldn't be eligible for the terms of proposition 47, that it simply wouldn't apply to you because you were guilty of a violence felony along with these other crimes that are being reclassified did i misunderstand that. >> that's not correct. >> i can tell you that the process is you have to apply to be released and a judge can use the past history, their conduct within the prison system if they feel that person is violent. they can say they are not coming out or she not coming out. the issue is we have to do something to fix the problem system. we have the highest

recidivism rate in the country today in california. this begins to fix the problem. >> do you really contemplate after -- if prop 47 were to pass, a world where carjackers kid p thatsers would be let out? i absolutely believe that will happen. it is very complex, but essentially the only population that is truly ex-clouded that we can say definitively are murderers, violent rapist and is ex-offenders. and standard is you have to be unreasonable risk to public safety, which is much higher than we currently exist i believe that is going to happen, and i think it presents a significant rink no

question should not on. >> so reduce it's prison population, does that push the state into having to do sort of policy invention on the fly here? and figure something out? >> well, it does. the sit has been on a campaign, because the street found the conditions were unconstitutional, so in the best of all words you wouldn't want to jump because the supreme court told you to, but nonetheless, they are required to do a substantial reduction of prison population, more than 30,000 in state prison, if you look at the impact on crime, this' been no adverse effect on violent crime rates. there's been a slight uptick on auto theft, but nothing else. so we do have in some ways a social experience already in the making, so far, at least, we don't see that it is a public safety problem. >> part of the difficulty it seems to

me, is that what you want? the law is even application and even expectation if you are a criminal, so you can't pile at something and say okay, just there we will try diversion for certain classes of criminals. you either change the code or you don't isn't the public in a reasonable position to consider it risky to embark on experiments where you simply free people. >> well, i think what prop 47 would do, i would apply, of course, across the state, so if the voters decide that shoplifting or theft under 950-dollar evers should still be punished but as a misdemeanor rather than a felony, then that's how it will be now some may send some none to local jail for a few months others may put them on probation with conditions.

we will have more inside story after this quick break, with the look at the possible release of frizzners already doing long time, and california and us the as a trend center, stay with us been >> america votes 2014 midterms it's all come down to this... >> you are going to determine whether i'm going to be the next senator from iowa >> the candidates last chance to convince voters they're the one... they will stop at nothing

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proposition 47 and the wall lot this coming tuesday, will make crimes like petty theft into misdemeanors program then apply some of the money saved in judicial and penal costs into mental health and drug treatment perhaps. officials have been reluctant to push for lower penalties even as the crime rate has dropped and the u.s. move toward locking up more of the citizens than any other nation on eater. mark mauer, executive director of the sentencing project, and anne-marie shoe bet. district attorney elect, mark, are we ready to reconsider a different way of doing this? now that the high tide of both violence crime and drug relate crimed seemed to have past, in this

low, is there an opportunity, a political space even, to have a conversation about the way we sentence and the way we punish. >> attorney general a year ago said we have too many people in too many of our prisons in america. fairly bold statement. and we have seen a number of states, new york, new jersey, reduced the prison population by 25% over the last decade. they have exceeded the national decline in crime rate, so i think for far too long, we have associated crime with incarceration, yes, incarceration has an effect on crime to some extent. paicularly sew when we talk about these low level offenses and other kinds of crimes like that, and of course it is a trade off in cost and efficiency anne-marie, if prop 47 were to pass,

would it lower some of the strain on the courtrooms in your county? allow the workloads in the cases they do handle, is there any silver lining to the possible of the pass soldier of this? i would tell you our caseloads won't go down, it doesn't reaccuse crime, it reduces consequences, it may be that we ship our focus that we have to quadruple our attorneys and less in the felony unit, it isn't going to reduce our workload. people aren't going to say i am start committing crime, in fact, it is just really a essenal to criminals that this is just okay, you will have no consequences for committing these crimes. i take issue with the statistics because in california here, as a result of realignment and the other policies we

have seen a uptick in crimes i don't call somebody with multiple convictions a petty theft, i calm him a long term offender that has to have consequences. and we gradually increase that over time. and at some point we say enough is enough. >> by saying you expect the workload to go up, are you negating by the possibility of that new spending for diversion in counseling and treatment to have any downstream effect to reduce the number of people who are prone to commit crime? i think there's a mid leading information out this, we have drug conversion programs. we have prop 47, we have drug courts. we have veterans court, all of those, can we use more money, absolutely.

but this mechanism is not the mechanism to send it out there to say that it is okay to steal and use drugs. what will change for the people who served under you on the streets of san diego? are they going to be in more danger or less. >> i don't think it will effect any danger, we have done some changing and the argument from those that are against it, are the same. they set it in realignment, and in prop 36 when we changed it. the recidivism rate is less than 2%, this is what police officers want to do. they want to have service that's what they do, they want to provide services and be able to refer people, to real treatment, right now it is not there. drug court is a great thing, i applaud what they do, it reaches very very few people.

we need to be smart on crime, this is the one that does it, and gets treatment where treatment is most needed. >> thank you all for joining me today, that brings us to the end of this edition of ink side story, thank you for being with us, the program may be over, but the conversation continues we want to hear what you think about the issues raced on this or any days program, log on and tell us if you think the style question where you live, would change things? you can send us your thoughts on twitter, our hanle is a.j. inside story, a.m., you can reach me directly at ray swarez news follow me there, we will see you for the next inside story, in washington, i'm ray swarez.

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