Rachael Myrow here, host of the California Report, with an AM post from somewhere else in California. Because we're in this Golden State together. Right?
It's a terrible name, realignment. For one thing, it provides no clear visual as to what it stands for: a massive shift in the way California incarcerates.
Over the last half-year, the state has been shifting responsibility for thousands of "low level" (read non-violent) offenders from state prisons to county lock-ups. Granted, we've got a lot of big public policy issues clamoring for attention, but with a name like realignment, how are most civilians going to follow along? There's no natural Twitter hashtag, no catchy rhyme possible, nothing for headline writers to work with. (OK, I'm done ranting now, Governor Brown.)
The California Report's Scott Shafer conducted an excellent explanatory interview with Barry Krisberg, director of the Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at UC Berkeley, back in August. "What we're looking at is one of the largest transformations of the correctional system in California that's ever occurred," Krisberg said.
Shafer followed up in September with a nice profile of how realignment is going in San Diego. In October, KPCC's Julie Small visited Alameda County. In November, KPCC's Frank Stoltze reported Los Angeles County doesn't have the beds for the thousands of people coming its way, potentially forcing Sheriff Lee Baca to opt for more early releases than he's inclined to.