Crime is a top issue for many Americans this election year, and voters in several states will have a say in how the criminal justice system functions in their state – from how harshly people are punished, to police funding, to what is even considered a crime.

Here are key themes from those initiatives.

Some ballot items signal a shift toward a more tough-on-crime stance

One of the most notable ballot items that could shift policies in a more conservative direction comes out of California. Voters there will decide on a proposition that would undo changes made a decade ago that lessened the punishments for certain crimes.

Among other changes, the proposed proposition would turn some misdemeanors – certain kinds of theft and drug crimes – into felonies, and lengthen some prison sentences. It would also require people facing certain drug felonies to go through treatment.

Those who support it say drugs like fentanyl are fueling the homelessness crisis and rampant theft in California’s cities. People against it say the proposition will take California back to a time of mass incarceration. The Legislative Analyst's Office, which provides policy advice to the California Legislature, estimated the item, if passed, would increase the state prison population by a few thousand people, as well as the state’s overall criminal justice costs.

Similar conversations – about how to punish people for crimes they commit – are happening in other states as well. A proposition in Colorado would make people convicted of certain violent crimes serve more time in prison before they can be eligible for parole, and another would take away the right to bail in first-degree murder cases.

In Arizona, voters will consider adding a new felony called “sale of lethal fentanyl,” in cases where someone knowingly sold fentanyl to a person who then died of an overdose. That is part of a larger immigration proposition in the state meant to crack down on migrants crossing the border, though data shows most people sentenced for trafficking fentanyl are U.S. citizens.

Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, says ballot items like these signal a backlash.

“Most of the ballot measures that we were voting on in 2020 were more progressive in nature in terms of reducing penalties. And now we're really seeing a reaction to that,” she says. “That is in large part in response to the perception that crime has increased.”

However, the latest crime data, released last month by the FBI, shows crime rates around the country are largely falling. What’s more, research shows harsher punishments don’t effectively deter crime.

Several states are voting on whether to bolster police funding

After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, public rhetoric around policing centered on reform, and many called for less police funding. Four years later, some ballot measures seem to indicate a trend in the opposite direction.

In Colorado, voters will decide whether some state revenue should go to a fund for police recruitment, retention, training, and benefits. In Arizona, a proposition would establish a $20 fee on every criminal conviction, which would be paid to the families of first responders killed on the job. And in Missouri, an amendment would use court fees to support police salaries and benefits.

Supporters say these ballot items would give much needed resources to law enforcement. Many police departments are understaffed, and increasing pay is often put forward as a solution.

Fees in the criminal justice system are common, but linking police funding to court fees – as would be the case in Arizona and Missouri – could create a conflict of interest by incentivizing officers to arrest more people, says Dylan Hayre of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, a nonprofit that focuses on eliminating these fees.

“If you're a policymaker, what you're actually saying is, ‘I need a certain level of criminal activity or conduct or harm to happen because I, as a policy maker, am tethering financial payout for us as a state to those incidents,’” he says.

Hayre says it’s noteworthy that one of these ballot items is in Missouri, where Michael Brown was killed by a police officer 10 years ago. After Brown’s death in Ferguson, the Department of Justice found that police and courts there violated Black residents’ civil rights by using excessive fines and fees as a revenue stream.

Several states are also voting on more progressive measures

In Nevada and California, voters are deciding whether to remove language in their state constitutions that allow slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime.

Supporters of the change say it would fix a loophole that allows forced labor in prisons. If the measures pass, the states would join at least seven others that have made this change in recent years.

Several states are also voting on whether to legalize certain drugs. Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota are considering legalizing recreational marijuana, which the majority of Americans support. They would join 24 other states in doing so. Additionally, Massachusetts is voting on whether to legalize the growth, possession and use of natural psychedelic substances, including psilocybin.

These more progressive ballot items – loosening drug laws and reforming prison labor – are in part an attempt to reconcile with past policies seen by some as overly harsh, even as others are aimed at restoring harsher punishments, says Insha Rahman of the Vera Institute of Justice.

“There's two really interesting dynamics happening, which is that we as a country are not where we were 10 years ago,” Rahman says. “Yet … there's still a perception that we need to get tougher.”

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