Despite what you may have heard, Tuesday was a fairly good day for criminal justice reform in California.
Of course, it may not seem so to Chesa Boudin, the soon-to-be-ex-San Francisco district attorney, who was recalled by a wide margin by the same impatient voters who ousted the previous DA two years ago.
And the right-wing forces trying to roll back criminal justice reform nationwide will have a different take. They targeted Boudin, a forward-looking progressive DA, because his liberal jurisdiction and his personal story made him seem like the anti-reformers’ biggest trophy. They funneled enormous resources into the recall effort, and Boudin, who is at best a middling politician, did a poor job defending his record.
