More than 100 residents turned out to hear people talk about how they benefitted from Prop 47 during a town hall conducted by Assemblyman Reggie Jones Sawyer and the Community Coalition at the organization’s headquarters in South Los Angeles.
But Sawyer said that what has happened thus far is a “drop in the bucket” compared to what needs to take place. The assemblyman said that the governor’s allocation in the state budget of $29 million does not come close to funding the recidivism programs that should have come as a result of the savings from the 167,000 people released under Prop 47.
Calling himself a bureaucrat who knows how to tuck money away, Sawyer said the governor’s $29 million allocation prompted him to “dig in” to find out where the money went. One thing he found was over-inflated costs on the criminal justice side.
Now, Jones says, the next step is lobbying for Gov. Jerry Brown to close the gap when he submits his May budget revision from what he is currently proposing and the $100-$200 million projected by the legislative analyst that should be available
