Californians move right on criminal justice

By Nigel Duara | CALmatters Californians moved right on criminal justice for the first time in more than two decades, voting for sterner sentences on minor crimes. Those changes are expected to reverse a trend of falling prison and jail populations — but proponents hope they will also reduce street crime and open-air drug use. The 2024 retrenchment marks a startling reversal of more than a decade of criminal justice policy in California, which was premised on reducing incarcerated populations, spending more on treatment and saving state dollars along the way. No more. Now, Democrats in the Capitol just watched voters and legislators steamroll past their proposals for a middle ground and instead line up behind Proposition 36, which increased penalties for some theft and drug crimes. Meanwhile, California’s two best-known “progressive” prosecutors, the district attorneys of Alameda and Los Angeles counties, were recalled or defeated in an election. The state’s top Democrats also lined up behind Proposition 6, which would have banned forced labor in prison and jails, and watched that measure fail. To top off a bad year for California Democrats, the state’s former attorney general lost the 2024 presidential race. Gov. Gavin Newsom spent the summer trying...