The Effect of California’s Realignment Policy on Public Safety

• In Event: The Effect of California's Prison Realignment

Abstract

In 2011, California passed AB 109, the Criminal Justice Realignment Act, which fundamentally altered the way that it managed its adult correctional system. Within just 15 months of its passage, realignment reduced the size of the California prison population by 27,527 inmates, prison crowding declined from 181% to 150% of design capacity, approximately $453 million was saved, and thousands of non-serious offenders were kept under local jurisdiction in jail or on probation. A regression point displacement design was used to test the effect of realignment on public safety. Results show that realignment had no effect on violent or property crime rates in 2012. These data provide preliminary evidence that large-scale reform of imprisonment policy is possible without endangering the overall safety of the public.

Authors

• Jody Sundt, Portland State University

• Mark G. Harmon, Portland State University

• Emily J. Salisbury, University of Nevada, Las Vegas