Pieces
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.
I over-shared with my children about the presidential election, smugly convinced that our country would never elect a maniac like Donald Trump. Growing up, my family had always talked politics around the dinner table.
San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in America, if not the world. But after living here for seven years, I have come to realize something. It is shockingly free of beautiful people.
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.