The Political Dynamics of Justice Reform in The U.S.
The Political Dynamics of Justice Reform in The U.S.
The Political Dynamics of Justice Reform in The U.S.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
directly affected who could go to prison. But we also saw an overall decl<strong>in</strong>e <strong>in</strong><br />
<strong>in</strong>carceration. And so that’s to say the jail population just didn’t <strong>in</strong>crease at the same<br />
level that the prison population was reduced.”<br />
Bird credits these improvements to a system <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>centives and fund<strong>in</strong>g mechanisms<br />
conta<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> the law. Even as local jurisdictions’ justice systems were expand<strong>in</strong>g, they<br />
were able to tap <strong>in</strong>to government funds that allowed them to <strong>in</strong>dividually pursue projects<br />
that reduced <strong>in</strong>carceration and correctional costs, she says.<br />
Bird jo<strong>in</strong>ed PPIC <strong>in</strong> 2012, just as California was beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g a massive wave <strong>of</strong> reforms.<br />
Along with her colleagues, Bird has helped spearhead an effort to gather data and<br />
analyze “realignments” impact.<br />
But gett<strong>in</strong>g to that po<strong>in</strong>t was no easy task—and still isn’t. As this reform movement was<br />
hitt<strong>in</strong>g its stride, the state was experienc<strong>in</strong>g a “huge data gap,” Bird says. Critical<br />
<strong>in</strong>formation was “siloed,” she adds, so much so that crucial data po<strong>in</strong>ts were not<br />
travel<strong>in</strong>g upstream, mak<strong>in</strong>g it nearly impossible for the county to conduct its own<br />
analysis.<br />
“Even just to evaluate a policy like ‘realignment’ or many <strong>of</strong> the subsequent policies that<br />
have followed <strong>in</strong> this era <strong>of</strong> reform, you really needed to br<strong>in</strong>g state and local data<br />
together <strong>in</strong> order to do that,” Bird cont<strong>in</strong>ues.<br />
“What we were able to learn based on those data is that realignment didn’t have—as<br />
some people feared—it didn’t have huge effects on crime rates and it didn’t actually<br />
have any negative effects on specifically violent crime rates,” she expla<strong>in</strong>s. “And that’s<br />
what folks were really worried about. If you reduced <strong>in</strong>carceration and <strong>in</strong> some respects<br />
to reduce the turn <strong>of</strong> go<strong>in</strong>g to prison, would we see a big <strong>in</strong>crease <strong>in</strong> crime and would<br />
we see a big <strong>in</strong>crease <strong>in</strong> particularly violent crime?”<br />
Even still, it’s “notoriously difficult” to draw conclusions from crime statistics, says<br />
VanSickle.<br />
“What I can say, we did look at crime data <strong>in</strong> California for the last couple <strong>of</strong> decades,<br />
and what we see now is that crime rema<strong>in</strong>s at historic lows <strong>in</strong> California,” she says. But<br />
to her larger po<strong>in</strong>t, VanSickle says crime rates were up <strong>in</strong> some counties and down <strong>in</strong><br />
others, which is why researchers <strong>of</strong>ten sc<strong>of</strong>f at mak<strong>in</strong>g generalized conclusions about<br />
crime rates and the effect specific laws have had on public safety.<br />
Stockton Ris<strong>in</strong>g<br />
It wasn’t that long ago when the city <strong>of</strong> Stockton was famous for all the wrong reasons.<br />
<strong>The</strong> city, nestled <strong>in</strong> San Joaqu<strong>in</strong> County, once had a murder rate that rivaled Chicago,<br />
and <strong>in</strong> 2012 became the largest American city to file for bankruptcy, still gripp<strong>in</strong>g from<br />
the economic downturn four years prior.<br />
Page 97 <strong>of</strong> 262