The Political Dynamics of Justice Reform in The U.S.

problems. They pioneered a program that uses sophisticated risk assessments rather
than cash bail to decide which defendants were safe to release before trial. And local
officials launched an array of novel anti-crime programs, including one aimed at building
trust between police and residents and another that gives stipends to young people
considered at risk of committing gun violence.
What happened next surprised many.
While overall crime in California increased slightly after 2011, San Joaquin County’s
dropped 20 percent and hit a decades-old low last year. The county’s jail, which had
been under court-ordered monitoring because of dangerous overcrowding, now has
empty beds. Participation in specialized drug courts has increased and recidivism
among newly released offenders has dropped.
It is unclear how much of the county’s success is the result of its new programs rather
than other factors, such as hiring more officers once the county’s finances improved.
But San Joaquin County has become an intriguing model for other counties curious
about what might work in an era of criminal justice reform.
Emissaries from Yuba County have drawn inspiration from its educational programs for
offenders. A Kern County judge came to examine an alternative court and spoke highly
of the collaborative court model to local leaders in Bakersfield. And after the governor
signed sweeping legislation this year eliminating cash bail for pretrial defendants,
dozens of counties sent representatives to learn how San Joaquin County adopted a
similar approach years earlier.
“I was very impressed,” said Ken Williams, a probation supervisor in Yuba County, who
toured San Joaquin County’s day reporting center, which provides job training and life
skills to former prisoners.
San Joaquin County officials acknowledge there is more to do. Although the county’s
crime rate has been cut almost in half since the mid-2000s, it remains among the
highest in the state. And most of that reduction was in property crime, not violent
offenses, which increased in the last few years before dipping slightly in 2017.
But San Joaquin County offers useful lessons in how a county struggling with poverty
and crime has adapted to — and embraced — recent criminal justice reforms.
With a population of about 745,000, San Joaquin County is a largely rural, agricultural area. The
landscape is dotted with cherry and apple orchards, fields of grape vines and tomatoes,
and giant, boxy shipping warehouses that have sprouted in recent years.
Its largest city, Stockton, has some of the dirtiest air in the nation and routinely makes
lists of the worst places to live in the United States. Poverty is out in the open. Tents line
a nearly empty canal a few blocks from downtown. Empty storefronts line the streets,
many with hopeful “available” banners.
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