Complaints about "defund the police" are back in the news. But if you look at actual expenditure data, it simply never happened.
Tag: Politics
Some Early Thoughts on Some Maybe-Overstated (By Me) Republican Threat to Local Reforms
For a while now, I've been seriously concerned about the threat that state-level preemption poses to local criminal legal reform efforts. But as I've dug into it more, my views have become ... confused. I don't think it is irrelevant, and it may still pose a dire threat to reforms. But also? Republican efforts to …
The Local, Mono-Partisan Nature of Our Current Decarceration
While state-level data suggests that red and blue states alike saw prisons declines, county-level numbers indicate that this seeming bipartisanship is deceptive. Even in the red states, the declines are driven by the blue counties.
San Francisco: Boudin’s Election, Recall, and Why We Got the Lesson From It Wrong
A deep (and a bit long) dive into the election and recall of Chesa Boudin in San Francisco. A story the pundits jumped on, but didn't really get right.
Prosecutorial Elections
An introduction to my forthcoming series of county-specific posts of who votes for reform prosecutors, and the hyperlocal politics they face.
Prisons, Prosecutors, and the Politics of Punishment 