Yesterday, CJCJ launched its California juvenile justice interactive map , displaying a plethora of data regarding local youth arrest and confinement practices by county. This is particularly pertinent given that California’s statewide trends are so extraordinary: Youth crime in California is at its lowest level since statewide statistics were first compiled in 1954. The county-by-county data paint a more nuanced picture of juvenile justice in California. Among its 58 counties, the…
Blog Nov 14, 2012
Washington’s and Colorado’s marijuana legalization schemes are no model for California
Though widely celebrated by progressive drug-policy reform groups, Colorado’s Amendment 64 and Washington state’s Initiative 502 approved by voters “to regulate marijuana like alcohol” represent discriminatory approaches Californians should not emulate. In fact, California ‘s current marijuana regulation design under SB 1449 is better than offered by Colorado or Washington . In particular, Washington’s marijuana legalization framework is flawed, containing several provisions that…
Several weeks ago, I represented CJCJ at the Second Annual Conference on Public Safety Realignment . The conference was sponsored by the Joint Training Partnership of the California State Association of Counties (CSAC), California State Sheriffs’ Association (CSSA) and Chief Probation Officers of California (CPOC). Over 600 law enforcement stakeholders were in attendance, representing Community Corrections Partnerships from the majority of the counties across California. Staff from the…
The voters have spoken. Not only did they re-elect Barack Obama but in two states — Colorado and Washington — possession of small quantities of marijuana was legalized. A clear message to the federal government to back off. At the same time California voters sent another message: the current “strike 3 and you’re out” law is way too harsh. The measures I‑502 in Washington and Amendment 64 in Colorado was the culmination of about a half century of efforts to bring some sanity to…
Implementation problems highlighted in a recent Sacramento Bee editorial stand to undermine California’s criminal justice realignment efforts. Most notably, the composition of county-level Community Corrections Partnership (CCP) committees has been called into question. Voting members of these committees are as follows: chiefs of probation and police, the public defender, the presiding judge of the Superior Court, the sheriff, and one social services worker or drug/alcohol abuse…