San Francisco’s criminal justice community wants to lead the way in changing how California sentences criminals and how they are monitored when they are released from prisons. The reform push comes as The City begins to handle an influx of newly released inmates as a result of realignment — the process of freeing some nonviolent offenders due to overcrowding in state prisons. On Wednesday, the first meeting of San Francisco’s newly established Sentencing Commission started talks about a yearslong project to create new policies that will draw a distinction between offenders who deserve prison time and others who might benefit instead from restorative justice programs and services.
The discussion falls amid of an uptick in gun violence. On Tuesday, police Chief Greg Suhr expressed concern about some of the 400 inmates who have been freed since October to local jails and probation programs. Suhr suggested that although the released inmates served time for nonviolent offenses, many have records that include convictions for violent crimes as well. The chief’s comments came during a news conference with Mayor Ed Lee to discuss a decision to abandon a potential stop-and-frisk policy that has faced mounting controversy. Instead of randomly searching people police deem suspicious, Suhr said officers will simply have to be more vigilant monitoring parolees at risk of reoffending.
Read more here
No comments:
Post a Comment