Criminal Justice

Give to CalMatters today and your gift will be doubled! Your support helps keep our nonprofit journalism free and accessible to all Californians. Donate now. Anti-crime initiatives won’t be alone in receiving “an exponential increase of support” in the budget proposal Gov. Gavin Newsom is set to send to state lawmakers in January. Dyslexia screenings […]

As California tries to crack down on crime, it secured a sizable victory for its strict gun control laws on Tuesday. That’s when a federal appeals court reinstated California’s bans on the sale and possession of high-capacity magazines that can funnel more than 10 rounds of ammunition into a single firearm. The 7-4 ruling from […]

Kern County has had state’s highest homicide rate since 2016, with rival prison gangs warring on its rural northern border.

For evidence that crime will likely be a key issue for California voters in next year’s election, look no further than this weekend. On Sunday, a pack of looters robbed a jewelry store in a Hayward mall, smashing glass cases and absconding with the valuables into waiting cars. Also Sunday, Walnut Creek police recommended that […]

Outgunned: The story of a woman, an abuser, and California’s failing gun control By Robert Lewis November 17, 2021 Lea este artículo en español. Eighteen miles south of the Central Valley home that was her prison, down Highway 99 past almond orchards and trucks overloaded with hay bales, sits the Madera County Superior Court. The four-story […]

Good morning, California. It’s Wednesday, November 17. Loopholes in state laws Today, a man named Julio Garay is due to appear in Madera County Superior Court, where he faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing his wife, Calley Jean Garay, a month after she requested a domestic violence […]

Good morning, California. It’s Friday, October 1. Police reform + racial justice Better late than never. That was the message undergirding a stack of criminal and racial justice bills Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law on Thursday, a year after many of them failed to make it out of the Democratic-controlled state Legislature. California now […]

An obscure committee examining California’s penal code saw more than half its recommendations go to the governor. Gov. Newsom signed all the bills.

A diverse coalition will continue to engage communities on issues of immigrant rights, affordable housing, climate change and criminal justice.

AB 937 would ensure that immigrants who serve their sentences, are ordered released aren’t transferred to ICE detention.