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Proposed ballot initiative would roll back recent criminal justice reforms

Citing an increase in violent crime rates, a coalition of law enforcement and victim’s rights groups announced last week a proposed ballot initiative that would partly roll back recent criminal justice reforms.   Calling itself the California Public Safety Partnership,

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Report: Crime rates stable after state’s passage of sentencing reforms

SACRAMENTO – To deal with federal court orders demanding a reduction in prison populations, California officials – and state voters, via initiative – passed a series of sentencing reforms over the past seven years that have reduced overcrowding from 181

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California prison reform laws under fire in aftermath suspected gang member’s murder of Whittier cop

After the killing of a Whittier police officer by a man with suspected gang ties, new focus is being drawn onto California Assembly Bill 109 – legislation signed into law by Gov. Brown in 2011 that critics say illustrates the danger of

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Police-reform spotlight shines on the local level

SACRAMENTO – The presidential campaign focused some attention on the long-simmering debate over policing and the appropriate uses of force, but as is typical with national campaigns, the nuances got lost amid ideologically charged soundbites such as “law and order”

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Gov. Brown could sign vote-from-jail law

  Heightening the stakes in the criminal justice debate roiling the country at large, Gov. Jerry Brown could soon greenlight a law that would allow some state felons to vote from jail. California has wound up in the middle of the pack on state

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Civil libertarians and police embrace asset-forfeiture compromise

SACRAMENTO – The California Assembly on Monday approved one of the most significant civil-liberties reforms of the legislative session. Remarkably, the bill – to put limits on the controversial practice of civil asset forfeiture by police agencies – had no

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CalWatchdog Morning Read – July 7

“Parole reform” ballot measure would reduce penalties for sex crimes Stanford historian burns CA policy making CA pension fund sucking up tax revenue Eight things to know about each Senate candidate May water conservation efforts were “phenomenal” Proposition 57 — the

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CalWatchdog Morning Read – June 29

Loretta, B-1 Bob and Hef Security failures prior to the O.C. jailbreak LASD lax on weeding out low-performing deputies Police transparency measures die When the state recompenses the wrongly imprisoned Good morning. Happy Hump Day.  Sure as the sun rises

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Pro-marijuana push begins in earnest

  As election day nears, California’s likely vote on recreational pot has drawn policymakers, politicians and law enforcement into an uncertain but probably decisive debate.  While many Democrats have generally come to view recreational marijuana as an inevitability in the Golden

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Deaths in police custody up, half attributed to natural causes

Manuel Ornelas died as he battled Long Beach police officers who were trying to subdue him in response to a Saturday morning call for help last September. Ornelas was apparently intoxicated and bleeding. He was subdued with an “an electronic control

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