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Felony theft thresholds are established in statute by state legislators and vary substantially from state to state.

Currently, felony theft thresholds are only adjusted when a legislator proposes a change through successful legislation that is signed into law by the governor. This means that there is no consistent, scheduled review of the thresholds and how they impact people, which is why we are calling for legislation to include indexing threshold for inflation every three years. Due to inflation, states apply felony punishments to crimes of lesser and lesser significance when they fail to update their thresholds. The status quo is increasing punishment, which is why we need change.

Felony convictions are accompanied by punishments including fines and fees, probation and parole (or other forms of community supervision), and periods of incarceration that can exceed a year in state prison. But a felony charge can also bring numerous other consequences, including restrictions on a person's right to vote, employment opportunities, and housing options. These consequences can follow an individual for the rest of their life. We believe that stealing a cell phone should not come with a lifetime of consequences.

There's no way to say for certain how incarceration rates will change if these thresholds increase. But we do know that roughly 45,000 Americans are behind bars for thefts of less than $10,000. So it's safe to say that raising the threshold could impact thousands of individuals, and reduce associated costs of jails and prisons.

Recent studies by the scholars at Pew Charitable Trusts determined that theft and larceny crime rates were not correlated with felony theft threshold amounts. In fact, they found that raising thresholds had no impact on larceny or theft crime rates or on the average value of goods stolen. Additional academic research by the New England Public Policy center corroborates these findings.

Big retail chains would certainly like you to think that. But the data simply doesn't support the idea that we're in the midst of a shoplifting "surge". The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data shows that shoplifting actually dropped 18% between 2019 and 2020, the latest year for which data is available. And the FBI reported in September 2021 that larceny rates are at their lowest point since the 1960s. Even as some retailers claim to be closing locations because of rampant shoplifting, deeper investigation suggests that other factors played a larger role in their decision to close stores.

Thankfully, there has been more and more attention given to the serious problems with outdated and dangerously low felony theft thresholds across the US. To name a few, the New York Times published an editorial in favor of changing the extreme, disproportionate punishments associated with low-level thefts and lawmakers in several states - most recently Kentucky - have attested to the fact that it is time to modernize felony theft thresholds.