San Quentin COVID-19 cases up 10x since Fri. SQ is used as the premier example of redemption and rehabilitation. Time to honor that depiction by releasing ppl based on who they are today, not based only on convictions.
-a thread-

Most convictions are achieved by plea deals, not trials. This means they're often meaningless regarding someone's actual guilt and say nothing about what a person actually did. Instead, they are usually based on threats by DA's that the person faces more time if they go to trial.

Instead, releases should be based on who the person is today, not who they were 10, 20, or 30 years ago when they caught their case.

About half of the entire California prison system has been deemed at low risk for reoffending, by CDCR's own assessment: https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/research/wp-content/uploads/sites/174/2020/01/201812_DataPoints.pdf

In fact, people in prison for some of the most serious offenses have the lowest recidivism rates: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/visuals/recidivism_and_reentry.html

This all adds up to the conclusion that sound public policy requires that CA consider releases in an entirely different way than we have been. Tell @GavinNewsom and @CACorrections to make release decisions based on who people are TODAY not on the worst moment of their lives.

#StopSanQuentinOutbreak