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In the last few years, California’s legislature has been at the forefront of enacting laws aimed at reforming the State’s criminal justice system and rectifying the injustices and the disproportionate effect that some of the State’s policies have had on marginalized and minority communities. As part of the ongoing effort to fight the biases and…

In 1987, California passed the Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act (STEP Act). The California legislature’s goal was to address the increasing criminal activities by street gangs and through the STEP Act it imposed a three-year sentencing enhancement for gang related crimes. Proponents of the law claimed that it would be applied narrowly and only…

Bullying has been a major problem for a long time and hundreds of thousands of children experience some form of bullying every single day. While public awareness of the prevalence of bullying is at all time high, the problem not only has not been eradicated, but in the era of social media, it has become…

Non-citizens, including lawful permanent residents, can experience profound immigration consequences for even minor or very old criminal convictions. Prior to 2017, California law only allowed defendants to challenge their conviction while they were in actual or constructive custody, i.e. parole or probation. As a result, countless people were left with no recourse and way of…

Until 2019, countless of inmates in California had been serving unjustly long sentences for murder convictions, even though they never killed, attempted to kill, or intended for a person to die. Fortunately, as part of the ongoing criminal justice reform in California, in 2017, the state legislature acknowledged the need for more equitable sentencing of…

On September 30, 2020, Governor Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 3234, which was codified as Penal Code §§1001.95-1001.97, and became effective on January 1, 2021. AB 3234 is a product of the continuing criminal justice reforms in California. The Court Initiated Misdemeanor Diversion is essentially a “get out of jail free card” as it…

For far too long transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex people have been subjected to various forms of discrimination and victimization. This has been particularly prevalent for those who have been incarcerated. Even the United States Supreme Court has recognized that transgender people are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse and harassment. Fortunately, in addition to being at…

The term “civil rights” encompasses a very broad variety of rights. Some of those rights are enshrined in the Constitution, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, the right to due process, and the right to equal protection under the law. In addition to the…

We live in a civilized society and being imprisoned does not mean giving up basic human rights. While, as a result of incarceration, inmates do have some of their rights limited and prisons are allowed to curtail certain rights based on safety and security, there are certain basic fundamental human rights that cannot be taken…

A criminal conviction can have a life changing and potentially devastating impact on anyone. However, under federal law, certain offenses are considered deportable, including controlled substance offenses, crimes of moral turpitude, and aggravated felonies. So, for noncitizens, a criminal conviction brings with it potentially very grave collateral immigration consequences. In many instances, the individuals who…