Blog Sep 6, 2011
California counties punished for best-practices
As counties prepare for criminal justice realignment, the disparities between counties’ sentencing practices become increasingly apparent. State-dependant counties, who have higher rates of state imprisonment, have been allocated substantially more funding than self-reliant counties. Rather than basing the funding allocation on county crime rates, the funding formula is based on the number of low-level offenders each county currently has in state prison. There is no doubt counties will need…
Blog Sep 1, 2011
CA Policy: the CCPOA political powerhouse
In my last two CA Policy blogs I discussed successful marketing strategies employed by special interest groups to thwart criminal justice policy reform. The two propositions I depicted as examples, involved sophisticated use of rhetoric and multimedia visibility. Both Proposition 66 and Proposition 5 were opposed by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), whose influential role in the opposition campaigns is documented in CJCJ’s CCPOA Information Sheet . Here’s a…
Two juvenile and criminal justice bills in the California legislature died last Friday due to lack of legislative backing. Senate Bill 9 would have granted youth sentenced to ‘life without parole’ (LWOP) a chance to petition for parole after serving at least 10 – 25 years of their sentence. It failed by a close margin and will be reconsidered in the coming weeks. The second bill, Senate Bill 490 aimed to repeal the death penalty. Although it gained substantial media attention it could not…
In my last blog , I discussed the effectiveness of a 3‑week media blitz that overthrew a California Proposition backed by significant financial investment, popular support, and academic research. This week’s blog will explore another example of the importance of a good marketing strategy when campaigning for criminal justice initiatives. California Proposition 5 (2008) Prop. 5 , known also as the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA), was a ballot initiative scheduled for the…
Demonstrations are taking place at Governors’ offices across the country today in New York, Connecticut, and Illinois in solidarity with those pushing for basic rights and humane conditions within the Security Housing Units (SHU) at the notorious Pelican Bay State Prison, located in the northwestern tip of California. The conditions of the SHU will be the topic of discussion at today’s oversight hearing by California’s Assembly Public Safety Committee (listen live at 1:30 pm ). The…