Justice

In hearings, Rob Bonta offers a new direction for a state justice department that progressives say has slow-walked reforms.

A CalMatters investigation found that at least 1,300 people have been locked in county jails for longer than three years awaiting a trial or sentencing. The findings are “surprising and embarrassing,” said State Sen. Tom Umberg, chair of the Judiciary Committee.

Across California, 44,241 people are being held in a county jail without being convicted or sentenced for a crime. That’s three quarters of all inmates. At least 1,317 people have been waiting in county jails for more than 3 years. For 332 of them, it’s been longer than 5 years. In 32 counties that gave […]

The state’s highest court now says judges must consider a defendant’s ability to pay, but mass inmate release unlikely.

The Atlanta shootings and other recent attacks on Asian Americans have prompted state lawmakers to resurrect past bills, but hurdles remain in documenting and prosecuting hate crimes.

New data from the state’s Judicial Council touts an increase in women judges and people of color on the bench, but Latinos, in particular, remain poorly represented in many Superior Courts.

Who takes responsibility for vaccinating detainees? “I don’t know,” said California’s surgeon general. Facing such confusion, some county officials are sending doses to immigrant detention centers, while others are awaiting state guidance.

Legal advocates are trying to roll back California’s hefty traffic ticket fines and fees, which are among the highest in the nation. One attorney called them a “blunt instrument” punishing people “when in reality, for many Californians, traffic tickets are simply too expensive to take care of.”

California has evolved in how it treats victims of sex trafficking. But many victims, most of them Black women, are still sitting behind bars for crimes they committed while being trafficked.