Some criminal justice reform measures taking hold slowly as judges and
prosecutors oppose them
Two major reform bills passed by legislators in Sacramento are not
getting much traction in practice in the states large
counties
By Greg Moran
NOV. 24, 2019
5 AM
For more than half a decade the state Legislature has churned out scores
of bills and new initiatives aimed at disassembling a vast criminal
justice system built over nearly 40 years on tough-on-crime laws that
increased punishments and swelled state prison populations.
The blizzard of new laws has put the state at the leading edge of the
national criminal justice reform movement that aims at reversing mass
incarceration policies by reducing prison sentences, opting for
rehabilitation over punishment, and mandating new approaches to policing
and prosecution.
Yet since the start of the reforms in 2011, when the Legislature passed a
law known as public safety realignment that reconfigured the state penal
system and kept more non-violent offenders in local jails instead of
state prisons, prosecutors and law enforcement groups have opposed many
of the changes.
That opposition is reflected in how two major criminal justice reform
laws are playing out nearly every day in courtrooms far from the
legislative hallways of Sacramento. Data gathered by The San Diego
Union-Tribune shows that more often than not prosecutors in six major
counties which collectively account for two of every three inmates sent
to state prisons are opposing bids by offenders seeking reduced
sentences for accomplice-murder convictions or pre-trial diversion to
mental health treatment instead of prosecution.
See link below for full story.....
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/story/2019-11-24/some-criminal-justice-reform-measures-taking-hold-slowly-as-judges-and-prosecutors-oppose-them