California

Despite a 2019 California law mandating the release of certain records related to police misconduct, law enforcement agencies in the state are still fighting records requests.

Rob Bonta’s career has hinged on the idea that the law can be used to engender social justice. His elevation to California’s “top cop” position, where he will become responsible for the vast bureaucracy of the state’s criminal legal system, will be a crucible for that belief.

Repealing state and federal mandatory minimums will help address the mass incarceration crisis, advocates hope.

Cities across the country must rethink the role of law enforcement, as police continue to brutalize and kill Black men and women during traffic stops, advocates say.

Several states, including Maryland, are considering bills to protect minors from abusive police interrogations.

The Santa Clara County district attorney’s name has been floated for the role of the state’s top prosecutor despite his use of the death penalty against people of color.

Advocates have been urging Governor Gavin Newsom to make greater use of his clemency power, especially for older prisoners who are more vulnerable to COVID-19.

New evidence suggests more accounting troubles for the CDAA.

In an effort to end systemic racism, the California city will aim to reduce the number of police-involved traffic stops for expired registrations and other small violations.

A coalition of environmental groups urges the legislature to force the repayment and dissociate from the CDAA.

After organizing to repeal the “walking while trans” ban, advocates in the state—and around the country—are looking ahead to the next fight.

Right-wingers and ultranationalists convened in the city days after the Washington insurrection, but the police crackdown that day fell on counterprotesters.

After years of misappropriating millions of dollars, opposing criminal justice reform, and ignoring the will of voters, the CDAA must be held to account by the governor and the attorney general.

The California city began distributing out up to $600 monthly to low-income residents.

A Vallejo police lieutenant has a long history of excessive force allegations in a department that is under investigation by the California Department of Justice—and he continues to rise in the ranks.

By appointing a reformer to replace the outgoing Xavier Becerra, Newsom has the chance to begin dismantling a sprawling, bloated system of prisons and jails that incarcerated nearly a quarter-million people as of 2018.

A new study suggests that if counties—rather than states—bear the cost of incarceration, they may be less likely to incarcerate people.

On his first day in office, George Gascón said prosecutors will not seek bail starting Jan. 1, a win for criminal justice reformers.

Los Angeles County, with the country’s largest jail system and largest local prosecutor office, is considered a crown jewel in a nationwide push for criminal justice reform.

The LA County supervisors are poised to tackle a wide range of criminal justice reforms, including moving children and people struggling with mental health issues out of the criminal legal system, and redirecting millions of dollars away from law enforcement and back into communities.

The ballot initiative would have bloated prisons and jails in the state and undone important criminal legal reforms, advocates say.

First-time state Senate candidate Jackie Fielder’s housing plans are geared toward government investment, while incumbent Scott Wiener’s plans have relied on the construction of market rate housing with some affordable units.

Fatima Iqbal-Zubair, who seeks to represent South Central Los Angeles in the State Assembly, wants ‘clean air, clean water, and clean food’ for her constituents.

Corporate backers of a group opposed to Proposition 21 don’t match the protective image it portrays. And a nonprofit that has contributed to supporters has been accused of financial improprieties.

The Board of Supervisors wields enormous power over a county government apparatus that includes the DA’s office, probation department, and sheriffs.

The ballot initiative, supported by police, corporations, and even big grocery chains, would use more taxpayer money to incarcerate people, rather than invest in other social services.

Proposition 17 would allow people with felony convictions to cast ballots while they are on parole.

States like California, New York, and Arizona have relied on prisoners to continue working, with little pay and in precarious conditions, during the coronavirus pandemic.

Governor Newsom should sign the CRISES Act into law this week and invest in community partners who support people in crisis situations.

Late-stage donations to the Los Angeles DA race increase concerns about the influence of law enforcement money on politics.

Several recent killings have put the spotlight on the largest sheriff’s department in the U.S., but many of the LASD’s abuses go unseen, advocates say.

California just made it a tiny bit easier for formerly incarcerated people to become civilian firefighters. But the law still leaves many obstacles in their path.

Taewon Wilson and Candace Chavez-Wilson are part of a growing movement to end life without possibility of parole and other harsh sentences.

Incompetence and inaction by California’s leaders are driving illness and death inside the state’s prison system.

A June report from the county’s independent judicial arm urges local government to reallocate law enforcement resources to social services.

Housing rights activists in California are pushing for taxation of rich residents to help the hundreds of thousands of people who may be at risk of losing housing after COVID-19 eviction restrictions end.

A new report finds that too many kids, particularly Black youth, continue to be held in dangerous juvenile detention facilities; California prison officials refused offers of free testing before and during San Quentin outbreak; and Gov. Gavin Newsom announces plans to release 8,000 incarcerated people.

A new multimedia campaign seeks to amplify voices of people incarcerated in Maryland’s Prince George’s County Jail, a GEO Group stockholder sues the for-profit prison company over its ’woefully ineffective’ COVID-19 response, and widespread testing is turning up thousands of new infections.

About 20 people in the prison’s Badger section have been on hunger strike for the past few days, three people incarcerated there say.

Prisoners are reluctant to report when they’re feeling sick, because they know they’ll be sent to solitary confinement.