California’s Public Safety Realignment

Gerlinger, Julie; Turner, Susan

doi:10.1177/0887403414547044

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Over the last year, the first studies have appeared of the effects of Realignment on recidivism. An initial study, published by Julie Gerlinger and Susan Turner (2014), used data from the pre-Realignment period to examine what the state could expect in terms of recidivism patterns in the wake of Realignment. Using data on prison releases, Gerlinger and Turner constructed proxy groups to simulate the likely differences between offenders defined by the law to be supervised by counties and those that remained under traditional parole.…”

Section: Early Research On Realignment and Recidivismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Realignment and Recidivism

Bird¹,

Grattet²

2016

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Scie

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

California's 2011 Public Safety Realignment created an unprecedented policy experiment by transferring the authority over lower-level felony offenders from the state correctional system to fifty-eight county jail and probation systems. While centered in California, these changes are reflective of an ongoing national conversation about the appropriate level of government at which to focus crime control efforts. In this article, we first situate Realignment in criminological and sociolegal literatures, showing how the reform offers opportunities to further inquiry as to the effectiveness of a wide variety of correctional strategies, implementation, and local variation in correctional law and policy. We then review early research focused on the statewide effect of Realignment on recidivism, which has produced mixed findings depending on the measure of recidivism applied. We then examine variation in recidivism outcomes across county sites and present findings that indicate there is an important relationship between local Realignment implementation strategies and recidivism outcomes. throughout, we focus on two overarching themes. the first is the challenge of disentangling the roles of offender behavior from justice system response in meaningfully interpreting changes in recidivism outcomes. the second is the challenge of evaluating the effects of policy or practice changes under limited data. Although the need for better and more expansive data is a common theme, we highlight it here in the context of a larger data collection that we have under way.

show abstract

Section: Early Research On Realignment and Recidivismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Realignment and Recidivism

Bird¹,

Grattet²

2016

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Scie

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The Gentle Neoliberalism of Modern Anti-bullying Texts: Surveillance, Intervention, and Bystanders in Contemporary Bullying Discourse

Meyer

2016

Sex Res Soc Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The author argues for the concept of "gentle" neoliberalism to account for how discourse in anti-bullying texts has increasingly presented itself as gentle and kind, while simultaneously reinforcing systems of surveillance and control. Results, based on a grounded theory analysis of 22 antibullying books, reveal that the texts generally decoupled bullying from power relations based on sexuality, overlooking homophobia and heteronormativity and marginalizing the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. Further, findings demonstrate a shift over time in the texts from an explicitly harsh description of the bullies to a seemingly kinder emphasis on reporting and intervening on behalf of the individual being bullied. This shift to interventionist discourse potentially expands mechanisms of control and reinforces inequalities based on race and social class, as bystanders are increasingly held accountable and students are encouraged to report their peers to authority figures. In response to neoliberal anti-bullying discourse, the author argues for scholarship and policy solutions that undermine unequal power structures and yet also oppose surveillance strategies of monitoring, reporting, and intervening.

show abstract

Is Downsizing Prisons Dangerous?

Sundt

Salisbury

Harmon

2016

Criminology & Public Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research Summary Recent declines in imprisonment raise a critical question: Can prison populations be reduced without endangering the public? This question is examined by testing the effect of California's dramatic efforts to comply with court‐mandated targets to reduce prison overcrowding using a pretest‐posttest design. The results showed that California's Realignment Act had no effect on violent or property crime rates in 2012, 2013, or 2014. When crime types were disaggregated, a moderately large, statistically significant association between Realignment and auto theft rates was observed in 2012. By 2014, however, this effect had decayed and auto theft rates returned to pre‐Realignment levels. Policy Implications Significant reductions in the size of prison populations are possible without endangering public safety. Within just 15 months of its passage, Realignment reduced the size of the total prison population by 27,527 inmates, prison crowding declined from 181% to 150% of design capacity, approximately $453 million was saved, and there was no adverse effect on the overall safety of Californians. With a mixture of jail use, community corrections, law enforcement and other preventive efforts, California counties have provided a comparable level of public safety to that previously achieved by state prisons. Nevertheless, sustaining these policy objectives will require greater attention to local implementation, targeted crime prevention, and sentencing reform.

show abstract

California’s Public Safety Realignment

Cited by 7 publications

References 22 publications

Realignment and Recidivism

Realignment and Recidivism

The Gentle Neoliberalism of Modern Anti-bullying Texts: Surveillance, Intervention, and Bystanders in Contemporary Bullying Discourse

Is Downsizing Prisons Dangerous?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About