This year, as Californians head to the polls, like every general election, voters will be asked to decide on a slew of questions instrumental to how the state will finance crucial projects and govern pressing issues. Ballot measures may seem like a way for voters to enact laws by popular consent and serve as a […]
Tag: Three Strikes Law
Prison Valley: Why Rural Californians Want Correctional Facilities
To many of California’s economically struggling and politically isolated rural residents, prisons are welcome additions to their communities. Former New York Corrections Commissioner Thomas Coughlin claimed, “Prisons are… the anchor of development,” in a 1990 Newsweek interview. “People [in the Valley] for a very long time have felt a sense that we don’t matter,” argued James Gallagher, […]
The New Progressive Frontier: Tough on [Sex] Crimes
Can legislation address one of the most pervasive crimes in our society? On March 30, 2016, Judge Aaron Persky of the Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County ruled on the case of People v. Turner, sentencing Brock Allen Turner to six months in prison for a rape he committed on the Stanford University campus […]
Progress, or Merely Reshuffling?: The Criminal Justice Reform Movement’s Shortcomings
Try getting opposing politicians to agree on an issue, and you probably won’t have much success. Yet, criminal justice reform has become the unifier to bridge the divide. President Barack Obama, at the 2015 N.A.A.C.P. Conference in Philadelphia, outlined criminal justice reform as the last great mission of his administration when he remarked to thunderous applause […]
Murder in Lockup
In recent years, it has become abundantly clear that security does not always come hand-in-hand with safety. Although they house the most closely guarded of California residents, state prisons have become dangerous for prisoners and, as a recent report by the Associated Press suggests, prison assaults have increased by an approximated 40% from 2011 to […]