XPost: alt.january, alt.politics.republicans, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.liberalism   
   From: rkoch@banmlkday.com   
      
   What exactly did Abbie Welch put in her purse before she snuck   
   out of a Walmart in Knoxville, Tenn.? The court ruling doesn't   
   say.   
      
   Nor does it matter. What matters is a piece of paper she'd   
   previously received from Walmart banning her from the store.   
   Prosecutors used it to argue she was trespassing when she   
   shoplifted. Her crime, typically a misdemeanor, was elevated to   
   a burglary. She became a felon with a six-year sentence.   
      
   Among the legal briefs cited by the Tennessee Supreme Court in   
   this high-profile ruling in February is one from several retail   
   groups — in support of the prosecution.   
      
   Retailers have long kept a close eye on shoplifting laws around   
   the country, warning of organized retail crime rings that are   
   costing stores a lot of money. In an era of social-justice   
   reckoning, their support of harsher shoplifting punishments and   
   related laws faces new scrutiny from advocates who say this   
   lobbying goes counter to the companies' public statements   
   promoting racial and social equity.   
      
   A new report by the consumer-interest nonprofit Public Citizen   
   calls out major retailers — Best Buy, Lowe's, Home Depot,   
   Target, Walmart and others — for donating to trade associations   
   and campaigns promoting harsher shoplifting penalties in at   
   least 18 states. The retailers succeeded in 11 of them,   
   according to the report.   
      
   "Corporations that embraced criminal justice reform rhetoric   
   have been fueling mass incarceration," the report declares.   
   Racial justice organization Color of Change plans to join Public   
   Citizen in writing to top retailers and industry groups to   
   demand they reverse course.   
      
   One related measure is on the November ballot in California:   
   Proposition 20 would toughen penalties for some theft-related   
   crimes. Among its biggest backers is grocer Albertsons, parent   
   of Safeway. Costco had previously donated to a campaign in favor   
   but told NPR that the company has requested a return of its   
   contribution and does not support the measure, without   
   elaborating further.   
      
   "People from across the political spectrum have come to realize   
   that it's wasteful and ineffective to just ratchet up   
   penalties," said Rick Claypool of Public Citizen, who authored   
   the report. "I think there is an opportunity here for the   
   retailers to change."   
      
   The crime   
      
   Claypool is typically a corporate-crime watchdog, but it was the   
   Tennessee case that got him curious. The door he opened was to a   
   convoluted web of state laws that decide the fate of people   
   caught shoplifting — who gets harsher penalties and who doesn't   
   — and the role that the stores can play when they lobby   
   lawmakers or send security staff to testify in court.   
      
   The retailers' targets are organized crime rings and repeat   
   offenders, looking to profit from shoplifting, said Jason   
   Straczewski, who oversees state-level advocacy and government   
   relations at the National Retail Federation. "Retailers are not   
   about filling the jails with tons of people who've stolen small-   
   dollar amounts of goods," he said.   
      
   The definition of "organized retail theft" changes by state.   
   California's Prop 20, for example, describes it as at least two   
   people shoplifting "in concert" at least twice in six months for   
   a total value more than $250.   
      
   The National Retail Federation doesn't "know where to draw the   
   line" in defining organized retail crime, Straczewski said. But   
   the trade group has called its impact as "considerable," costing   
   retailers $703,320 per $1 billion in sales. Almost all the   
   retailers polled by the trade group said they'd been hit by   
   retail-theft "gangs" in the previous year. Top stolen items were   
   designer clothes and handbags, infant formula, razors and   
   laundry detergent.   
      
   The culprit   
      
   Home Depot made headlines last year when it said the nation's   
   opioid epidemic was a big cause of "shrink" — a word retailers   
   use when merchandise goes missing, whether stolen by employees   
   or outsiders. Public defenders tend to describe shoplifting   
   cases as crimes of poverty, drug abuse and mental illness.   
      
   Thalia Karny had just moved from the Bronx to the über-wealthy   
   Manhattan as a public defender when she met Qulon McCain. He'd   
   been caught stealing socks from Bloomingdale's, and like Welch   
   in Tennessee faced a bumped-up felony charge because the store   
   had given him a "trespass notice."   
      
   McCain told her he was homeless. That he had mental illness.   
   That he wanted to get better. He spent almost nine months in   
   prison, she says, before finding a place in a mental-health   
   treatment center.   
      
   Karny had never seen such a case before. But they've cropped up   
   in some states. A woman battling cancer was sentenced to at   
   least 10 months in prison in Pennsylvania after stealing some   
   $100 worth of groceries. A man in Tennessee was sentenced to 12   
   years in prison after he faked the return of $39 worth of items   
   he had taken off store shelves. A man in Arizona was charged   
   with a felony after getting caught stealing items worth less   
   than $10.   
      
   Prosecutors point to the offenders' lengthy criminal histories   
   as factors for their serious sentences. Public defenders say   
   they are people trapped in the cycle of the criminal justice   
   system.   
      
   "Shoplifting may be a problem, an issue that needs to be dealt   
   with, but in our society, the only answer we have apparently is   
   — let's put people in prison for long periods of time," said   
   Jonathan Harwell, a public defender in Tennessee known for his   
   work on "Walmart burglary" cases. "We're the only country in the   
   world that does it on the scale that we do it. It doesn't seem   
   to be working, and it ruins people's lives. And why are we doing   
   that?"   
      
   The punishment   
      
   The main way that retailers are pushing for harsher shoplifting   
   punishments, according to Public Citizen, has to do with the   
   dollar value that states use to determine whether an incident is   
   a felony (typically punishable by over a year in prison) or a   
   misdemeanor (typically punishable by less than a year in jail,   
   often served on probation).   
      
   In recent years, concerns about mass incarceration have pushed   
   most states to raise the felony threshold. Many say, for   
   example, that theft below $1,000 should be a misdemeanor. But   
   disputes around these amounts persist.   
      
   Retail trade groups have argued that prosecutors should be able   
   to aggregate shoplifting incidents to crack down on repeat   
   offenders. With the same goal, the groups in many states have   
   lobbied in favor of lower thresholds for the value of stolen   
   property that triggers a felony charge.   
      
   Opponents of higher felony thresholds argue they encourage more   
   shoplifting because organized groups can simply adjust to   
   stealing more valuable items without fear of facing stiffer   
   charges. In recent years, the Pew Charitable Trusts studied   
   states that raised their thresholds and reported that property   
   crime rates were falling before the change and continued to fall   
   afterward.   
      
   The National Retail Federation's 2020 security survey found that   
      
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