California has seen seven years of transformative justice system reforms: AB109, enacted in 2011, lowered the prison population; Proposition 47, approved by voters in 2014, reduced certain nonviolent crimes to misdemeanors; Prop. 57, passed in 2016, gave more people a chance at parole and reduced prosecutors’ power to try children in adult court; and, in March, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on the death penalty.
Lara Bazelon is a law professor and writer. The recipient of MacDowell and Mesa Refuge residencies, her op-eds and essays have been published in the New York Times,The Atlantic Magazine, New York Magazine, Washington Post, Slate, and Politico, among other media outlets. Her nonfiction book, AMBITIOUS LIKE A MOTHER: WHY PRIORITIZING YOUR JOB IS GOOD FOR YOUR KIDS is available for pre-order and will be published on April 19.
