OVERVIEW
We advocate for policies, budgets and administrative practices to reduce wasteful spending on incarceration and prioritize investments in communities that make us safer.
Since our founding, we co-authored and co-led the successful Yes on Proposition 47 ballot initiative campaign in 2014 (c4), Yes on Proposition 57 ballot initiative campaign in 2016 (c4) and dozens of legislative and budget campaigns. These efforts have reduced incarceration and increased rehabilitation and investments into community prevention and treatment. We have also advocated for trauma recovery centers — growing them from just 1 to 15 across California.
We focus our statewide advocacy to advance smart safety priorities that reduce wasteful spending on prisons, expand rehabilitation, remove barriers to recovery for crime survivors, and build pathways to successful re-entry for people living with past convictions.
SB731 (Durazo): Sunsetting Convictions
This bill will implement a comprehensive system to prospectively and retroactively seal conviction and arrest records. 8 million people in California have a past arrest or conviction on their record. California maintains an individual’s conviction records until that person reaches 100 years of age. As a result of the widespread usage of background checks in today’s society, the permanence of these records present thousands of barriers resulting in widespread constraints on civic participation, with disastrous impacts on individuals, communities and economies across California.
SB299 (Leyva): Equal Access for Victims of Police Violence
This bill will remove barriers faced by victims of police violence and other violent crimes in accessing California’s Victim Compensation program.
AB1308 (Ting): Fair Arrest & Conviction Relief
Individuals with criminal records face barriers in gaining employment, making them more likely to reoffend. This bill would open doors to those facing employment and housing barriers by automating the process of clearing an arrest or criminal record for eligible individuals.
AB95 (Low): Bereavement Leave
This bill protects workers’ right to take unpaid bereavement leave upon the death of a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or domestic partner. Currently, workers in California have no right to bereavement leave, paid or unpaid, when a close family member dies.
AB329 (Bonta): The Pretrial Justice Reform Act of 2021
This bill creates a more fair pretrial justice system in California by: 1) setting bail at $0 for most misdemeanors and low-level felonies; 2) ensuring people accused do not remain in custody simply because they cannot afford to pay bail and do not assume any costs of court-imposed release conditions; and, 3) requiring bail companies to refund the premiums they receive from defendants who aren’t charged; have their case dismissed or make all of their required court appearances.
SB262 (Hertzberg): The Pretrial Justice Reform Act of 2021
This bill creates a more fair pretrial justice system in California by: 1) setting bail at $0 for most misdemeanors and low-level felonies; 2) ensuring people accused do not remain in custody simply because they cannot afford to pay bail and do not assume any costs of court-imposed release conditions; and, 3) requiring bail companies to refund the premiums they receive from defendants who aren’t charged; have their case dismissed or make all of their required court appearances.
SB81 (Skinner): Judicial Guidance on Sentence Enhancements
This bill establishes a presumption that judges would only apply sentence enhancements when there is clear and convincing evidence that not using the enhancement would endanger the public.
California’s penal code has multiple sentence enhancements that can be added to a criminal charge. Sentence enhancements are not elements of the crime, they are additional circumstances that increase the penalty, or time served, of the underlying crime. While the application of an enhancement may appear straightforward, research reviewed last year by the Committee on the Revision of the Penal Code revealed inconsistency in their use.
SB82 (Skinner): Theft Is Not Armed Robbery
This bill reforms California’s 150-year-old statute to ensure that petty theft is no longer treated like armed robbery. It sets to establish a clear distinction between theft and robbery by creating a second category of petty theft for cases where no weapon was used and no one was seriously injured, but where there may have been an inadvertent use of force or perceived fear.