Legislative Scorecard

Initiate Justice Action (IJ Action) is a 501c4 non-profit organization founded and led by people directly harmed by the prison system. We champion progressive policy solutions to end incarceration and build the political power of people directly impacted by it.

This year, IJ Action has released its first-ever legislative scorecard specifically analyzing the votes of State Assemblymembers and State Senators on critical justice reform legislation.

IJ Action selected eight justice reform bills introduced in 2023 that reflect our policy priorities. Four of these bills passed the legislature and were sent to the Governor’s Desk. The remaining four – two from the State Assembly and two from the State Senate – did not advance out of both chambers, but made it to the Floor of each respective house.

Each bill represents a non-reformist reform that accomplishes one or more of the following: resentencing and bringing people home from prison; addressing discrimination and corruption in the criminal legal system; and empowering people impacted by incarceration.

SB 81 (Skinner) – Prohibits the Board of Parole Hearings from considering any discriminatory factor – including race, ethnicity, housing status, physical or mental disability, and subjective biases such as tone of voice, volume of speech, facial expressions, body language, eye contact, and other factors – in parole eligibility.

SB 94 (Cortese) – Permits recall and resentencing for people sentenced to life without parole (LWOP) who have served 25 years or more in prison.

AB 1310 (McKinnor) – Permits people in prison with certain gun enhancements dating prior to January 1, 2018 the ability to petition for recall and resentencing.

SB 749 (Smallwood-Cuevas) – Eliminates the deadline for people in prison to petition for recall and resentencing under Proposition 47.

AB 600 (Ting) – Authorizes courts to automatically recall and resentence someone in prison if sentencing laws surrounding their conviction have changed or been repealed.

AB 93 (Bryan) – Prohibits so-called “consent searches” (warrantless searches) by law enforcement agencies of a person, their vehicle, or their effects.

AB 1306 (Wendy Carrillo) – Prohibits California Department of Corrections (CDCR) from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement upon release of someone on elder parole, medical parole, compassionate release or clemency, youth offender parole, vacating of a felony conviction, vacating of a sentence based on being a victim of trafficking or intimate partner violence, or resentencing/release under the Racial Justice Act.

SB 50 (Bradford) – Prohibits law enforcement from stopping vehicles for minor infractions such as a broken taillight or expired registration and authorizes localities to shift Vehicle Code enforcement to non-law enforcement.

Public safety is a universal demand – but it is how we define and pursue public safety that matters most in terms of our achieving it. For too long mass incarceration and militarized policing of poor, immigrant, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities has been the crux of how we define and pursue public safety in our society. Lengthy prison sentences, mandatory minimums, draconian enhancements, chronically underfunded rehabilitation and re-entry services, byzantine parole processes, and a de-emphasis of family and community connectivity while incarcerated are all hallmarks of the system we have now – a system broken by design and driven by fear, intimidation, and institutional racism. 

For roughly a decade, Californians have worked to unravel this disastrous system, championing abolitionist reforms like Proposition 47, Proposition 57, and Proposition 17. In addition, the state has taken important steps to reduce the prison population and permanently close down prisons. And while many California lawmakers have supported measures to transition away from the failed tough-on-crime policies of the past and towards public health-based solutions, we remain at risk of backsliding.

This legislative cycle, bipartisan support for new laws to impose lengthy prison sentences for fentanyl possession and sale harken back to the darkest days of the War on Drugs. Similarly, bills like SB 14 to expand the brutal Three Strikes Law by including human trafficking as a strikeable offense – despite it already being a serious felony that can lead to a life sentence – were jammed through the legislature for the first time in over 20 years under a Democratic legislative supermajority and a Democratic governor. We are highly disappointed that Democrats allowed far-right Republicans to set the tone of messaging and discussion on Three Strikes expansion, failed to counteract Republican fear-mongering with facts and the lived experiences of people directly harmed by the Three Strikes law, and ultimately chose the path of least resistance while ignoring core Democratic values and the will of voters.

IJ Action joins dozens of state and local criminal justice reform organizations in unequivocally rejecting a return to the failures of the past. Every dollar spent criminalizing poverty, trauma, mental illness, and substance use disorders is a dollar better spent on alleviating those conditions. We will continue championing progressive policy solutions that lead us towards true public safety and empower the voices and priorities of people directly harmed by the prison system.

https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov