Los Angeles hosts the largest prison system in the country. Hosting an average capacity of 17,000, up to 2% of inmates in the United States are incarcerated in LA county jails at any time. These numbers, which have increased significantly since the late 20th century due to tough on crime legislation, casts a grim shadow on the otherwise progressive community. However, anti mass incarceration movements have new ideas for how to lower these numbers.
The recent DA election process was an important one, as the candidate elected has already introduced radical change sure to change LA counties justice administration.
“Along with reconsidering more than 10,000 pending cases, Gascón pledged in his speech to make “an unprecedented effort to re-evaluate and resentence” thousands of prison terms. He referred to at least 20,000 that were “far longer than those they would receive under the charging policies I announced today. That is one-fifth of California’s total prison population.””
He plans to do away with very long sentences for most cases- meaning less life sentences and less felony charges. Many of these re-evaluations had to do with drug crime, and marks another step in ending the war on drugs. His policies barring the use of enhancements- extra charges added on to a case because of affiliation with a gang- are also sure to greatly decrease the prison population- that is, if lawyers and justice administrators are willing to comply with these changes.
Some family members of the victims of inmates who committed violent felonies are upset about these directives, and criminal justice advocates have been sure to capitalize off of them. Many inmates formerly committed to life sentences are being given leeway, and others who helped assist crimes that were put in jail for extended periods due to enhancement charges are now chopping even greater times off their sentences. For some victims, this does not seem like justice.
“Reading the directives, the victim representative, who worked with the families of 50 people who were murdered, asked a deputy district attorney who sat nearby what the new policies meant for them. The enhancements would be dropped in every case, he said. Her supervisor told her to start calling the families.
“People were asking: ‘Why? What changed?’” she says of the calls to the families of those who had been killed. “Some people cried.””
These perspectives, along with backlash from tough on crime advocates, led to a recall effort for Gascon only three months into his tenure.
I think that the backlash is justified because shortening prison sentences isn’t an appropriate way to reduce incarceration rates. LA is one of the largest cities in America, so there will of course be a large population of criminals. The reality is that there needs to be a prison system to punish bad actors within our society. It’s a large expense, but something worth having to maintain a functioning society.
I really enjoyed reading this blog post, I did not know all of this information about the LA prison system. I think it is crazy how long some people’s sentences are for drug crimes, especially in the state of California. I understand why some victims and their families might be upset by some of this change, especially among violent criminals. I think it is important for the LA judicial system to be really conscious about the decisions they are making especially after recent incidents including the arrest of the man who drove his car through the parade after his recent release from prison.
I enjoyed reading about these strategies to reduce incarceration rates in LA, and I also didn't know that this city hosts the largest prison system in the country. Rethinking the outdated war on drugs and its resulting prison sentences is a great start, but it ultimately spans further than the DA's office. I thought it was interesting how the DA's effort to reduce the length of prison sentences for some inmates was met with a lot of backlash from people who were either tied to the victims, or those who are advocates for tougher laws and use these victim stories to advance their agenda. In the end, it's ultimately harder to convince people to sympathize with convicts than victims, which…
In today's incarceration system there are many people who have been given sentences that are too long. Charges for such things as drug charges such as marijuana. Charges for marijuana do not need to be given 10+ to life sentences because that also is why the system is so populated. Especially now since marijuana legalized in the state.
The incarceration system is a broad issue that we as a nation and a city need to have more discussions about. Many of those within our prison systems are related to minor non violent offenses such as drug related. In states like California it is absurd to keep them locked away in prisons when it has been legalized by the state.