Newsom changed California prisons. What will the justice system look like when he is gone?
California’s criminal justice system looks markedly different than it did when Gov. Gavin Newsom took office seven years ago.
It has fewer prisons due to a sharp drop in the number of people in state prisons. Directs additional resources to rehabilitation programs. And, in a prison that used to hold death row, inmates can see the San Francisco Bay from a new education center aimed at helping them prepare for life outside.
That begs the question, will the next governor continue Newsom’s emphasis on the rehabilitation of incarcerated people or go the other way?
CalMatters recently hosted a panel discussion on what’s next for criminal justice in California featuring Los Angeles County Dist. He said. Nathan Hochman, Heidi Rummel of the Post-Conviction Justice Project and Dave Lewis, a longtime Department of Corrections leader who oversees the planning and construction of state prisons.
CalMatters reporter Joe Garcia moderated the panel. He is a former imprisoned journalist who was represented on the parole board by Rummel.
In different ways, each team contributes to providing justice to victims of crime and shaping opportunities for incarcerated people who want to grow.
“The power of hope can move mountains and I’ve seen it in many people I’ve worked with,” said Rummel, who represents incarcerated people in parole hearings. He favors policies that provide incentives for inmates to pursue rehabilitation and a chance at freedom.
“It is my firm belief that there are many people in our prisons locked up there because of the sentencing laws of the 1980s, sentencing regimes that are truly discriminatory, who could be safely released,” she said.
Hochman took office last year after defeating incumbent prosecutor George Gascón. Hochman’s victory was seen as a vote for tougher sentences due to voters’ frustration with crime in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He stressed that the program must provide a sense of justice and revenge to the victims of crime, although he said that does not depend on a long prison sentence.
Hochman visited San Quentin to see the changes Newsom directed after he suspended the death penalty and ordered the death row to be abolished. The prosecutor said he met inmates who took rehabilitation seriously and recognized the pain their victims had caused.
“I expected to come out thinking that we should throw away the key and not give anybody — especially these people — a second chance,” Hochman said. “I got this feeling that even people who have done things that should stay in prison for the rest of their lives, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t invest in them while they are in prison so that maybe they can do something useful while there.”
Lewis was instrumental in designing the new San Quentin educational institution. It’s meant to evoke a different feel than what he described as bleak repair settings marked by dirty platforms and high walls.
Rethinking prisons to support human development can curb crime, he said.
“There is a lot of sense that ‘Criminals don’t get anything from them,'” he said, describing conversations with friends and family. “I say it’s okay, but their community, and the community they return to, what is coming to them?”
“If we take ourselves back, you are recycling the problem,” he said. “We can prevent the next victim from happening by providing opportunities.”
Adam Ashton writes CalMatters.
