Our guest this week is PRI senior fellow in urban studies Steve Smith. Steve is a former police officer, has helped organize peacekeeping forces abroad, and is a retired professor of justice administration. His new study, “Paradise Lost: Crime in the Golden State, 2011 – 2021” documents how a decade of dramatic criminal justice policy changes aimed at reducing incarceration – including AB 109 and Prop. 47 and 57 – and sweeping executive orders issued by Gov. Newsom during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to what Steve calls “mass victimization,” of Californians and is now responsible for the increase in crime statewide.
