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Comment by miked85 | Hacker News Reader

I am not sure how any retail business can survive in CA when laws basically allow people to steal, as long as they keep it under $950. Walgreeens is smart to leave.

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Just here to point out that a misdemeanor can carry a 12 month prison sentence in CA. And before someone replies that you're unlikely to serve time for a misdemeanor, that's because our prisons are already too full - a situation that wouldn't be changed by making more crimes into felonies.

What are you are suggesting? Should we just accept theft and businesses closing, release criminals, or open more prisons?

My comment isn't meant to suggest any particular solution, just to push back on the commonly expressed idea that repealing Prop 47 (the proposition that set these felony limits) would address this problem.

Building more prisons?

I know it’s not in line with current thinking but there is evidently enough criminality out there to justify custodial sentences and current prison capacity should not have to be a consideration when sentencing.

The problem isn’t that it’s a misdemeanor. The laws aren’t enforced at all.

I remember watching one of these thefts watching. The security guy told the manager: “Report it to the police. They’re not going to do anything, but you have to report it anyway.”

Certainly there are ways of handing this other than ignoring it and locking people up?

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