California an Example of Why Advocates Must Remain Vigilant
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For decades, criminal and juvenile justice reformers have fought to dismantle the policies, structures and funding schemes that make up the nation’s overly punitive justice system. Recently, these efforts have been gaining traction. Polls show growing public recognition that the juvenile and criminal justice systems are harsh, ineffective and biased against people of color.
Reform campaigns, many of which are led by justice-impacted people, have taken critical steps to repeal some of the “tough on crime” approaches that gave rise to mass incarceration and an overbuilt juvenile justice system. In the past several years, more than a million people with felony convictions have won the right to vote in Florida, 16- and 17-year-olds are no longer automatically tried as adults in New York and North Carolina, the nation’s largest death row (California’s) has halted executions and progressive district attorneys have been elected in Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Yet success in state legislatures or at the ballot box can be fragile.