On its first day leading up to the leading fee of the country’s largest district attorney, a top Los Angeles County prosecutor announced a series of criminal justice reforms aimed at “permanently” changing California’s criminal justice system.
George Gascon, elected last month as reformer, unsettled the county’s first black district attorney, Said in a long thread on Twitter on Monday That office fee would no longer demand the death penalty, which he described as “racist and morally incompetent.”
He said 85 percent of the 215 people who died in Los Angeles County were people of color.
Lawyers in misconduct, reckless or nonviolent crime cases will not ask for cash bail – a system he called a “terrible proxy for risk.”
Prosecutors will not file a sentence amendment like California’s “St Strikes” law – which could send people to prison for longer periods of time.
From 1990 to 1999 – five years after the law was passed – California’s prison population increased from 94,000 to 160,000, Gasak said.
Under its announced amendment, children will no longer be sent to adult court; Low-level crimes associated with poverty, addiction, mental illness and homelessness will be diverted to health services; And its office fees will review cases in which long prison terms were “inconsistent” with sentencing and charge policies.
The review could apply to at least 20,000 people behind bars, Gasken said. “Preference will be given to cases where people have committed non-violent crimes or are older and less likely to commit more crimes,” he said.
His office will set up a conviction integrity unit to review innocence claims, and a separate unit will investigate the writs of habeas corpus – conviction challenges that can be filed after the appeal process is over.
If a lawsuit appears to qualify, he said, his office will begin an investigation immediately.
Gasken, a former Los Angeles police officer who oversaw reforms in the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1990s and then headed the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, said the reforms would change the way the CA’s criminal justice system works. Mass detention in Los Angeles and beyond.
The Los Angeles Police Union called the reform unjustified and potentially “disastrous,” and said Gascon was exploring every possible place to get rid of the prison responsible for the recent rise in violent crime.
“The new DA speaks of a good game, but its plans will do nothing, but victimize Los Angeles residents, especially blacks and Hispanics, who currently make up 70% of violent crimes,” the union said in a statement. . “These victims and law-abiding residents lost their voices today when criminals and gang members found a partner in the prosecutor’s office.”
Andrew Blancstein Contributed.
