Billionaire George Soros is giving financial support to a proposition on the California ballot that would send many more drug-using lawbreakers into treatment instead of prison.
Proposition 5, called NORA for Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, would allocate an estimated $1 billion a year for treatment, probation and parole.
“But the Legislative Analyst’s Office believe it could save the state as much money, especially in prison construction, as it will cost — maybe more,” the Sacramento Bee reports.
State officials believe the program could lower California’s adult inmate population, now roughly 171,000 prisoners, by 18,000, saving about $46,000 per year for each inmate. It would also reduce the number of parolees by 22,000.
“NORA is part of what’s become a long procession of drug and criminal sentencing reforms underwritten by Soros, John Sperling, the founder of the private for-profit University of Phoenix, and other rich liberals,” according to the Bee.
One provision of Proposition 5 would make possession of small amounts of marijuana an infraction instead of a misdemeanor.
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