Stanford Criminal Justice Center
Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and co-director of its Criminal Justice Center; former Professor of Criminology at the University of California, Irvine's School of Social Ecology; author of 11 books on crime and public policy, including When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry; Chair of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Rehabilitation Strike Team and former co-chair of California’s expert panel on offender programs
Brown’s Sentencing Reform Gov. Jerry Brown announced he’s putting a new measure on the November ballot. The measure will undo aspects of a tough sentencing law that Brown himself signed back in 1977. That law marked the beginning of the tough-on-crime era, which also saw an explosion in the state’s prison population.
What's Happened to America's 'Crackdown on Crime?' After 30 years of being "tough on crime," the US -- with 5% of the world's population -- has 25% of its prisoners, and that's very expensive. Now the crime rate is way down. Conservatives are joining liberals, demanding reduced sentences and alternatives to incarceration. Texas is one of the states where prisons are being shut down.
Gov Brown Wants Feds to Give Back Control of Prisons Governor Brown picks a fight with the federal courts over the health and safety of inmates, claiming that California prisons aren’t overcrowded any more.
Prisoner 'Realignment:' Reducing Recidivism or Public Safety Nightmare? In the process called "realignment," some 33,000 inmates are being released from overcrowded state prisons by order of the US Supreme Court, with LA County Probation and the Sheriff's Department getting the lion's share. County Supervisors say they're not ready, and District Attorney Steve Cooley has predicted a rise in crime.
Supreme Court Hears Prison Overcrowding Case For 20 years the State of California has been charged with unhealthy and inhumane treatment of prisoners, but failed to meet many promises to ease overcrowding. Today, the US Supreme Court took up the state’s appeal of an appellate court ruling that 40,000 prisoners be released.
Reforming the California Prison System A three-judge federal panel has found that California’s prisons are overcrowded to the point where inmates die almost on a daily basis. It’s ordered that prison populations be reduced. At the same time, a new state law has reformed the parole system.
Will Broken State Budgets Mean Prison Reform? In the past 20 years, state prison budgets have increased by 303 percent, outgrowing everything else except Medicaid. America's prison population is now much larger than China's, and five states spend more on corrections than higher education.
Will Broken State Budgets Mean Prison Reform? The United States has more people in prison than anyplace in the world. China's a distant second. After 20 years of tough-on-crime legislation, state prison budgets have increased by 303 percent, outgrowing everything else except Medicaid. Five states spend more on corrections than higher education.
Paris Hilton and Imperfect Justice at County Jails Why are so many other inmates released before their sentences have been served? What’s the state of medical treatment for the seriously ill? Is Baca the only one who’s at fault? What about the state of California and the supervisors themselves? We'll get some surprising answers tonight on WWLA.
What AMLO Means to Los Angeles Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador has forged a special connection to Angelenos and Mexican-Americans.
No end in sight More than 800,000 federal employees continue to go without pay in what could soon be the longest government shutdown yet.
The march toward a teachers strike sounds familiar Higher salaries, larger class sizes, more counselors, librarians and nurses. Those are just some of the demands that members of United Teachers, Los Angeles - the union that represents teachers' at LAUSD - are asking for.
What are charter schools? LAUSD teachers were picket lines for a second day Tuesday. And this morning the teachers union organized a march to the California Charter Schools Association office downtown, to draw attention to their criticisms of local charter schools. But what are charter schools anyway?