Viewpoint: Criminal justice reform needs a modern reboot
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Photo/by Katrin Bolovtsova
by Kathy Duan | Special to the Courier
Lewis, a Black man with a history of juvenile detention, had finally reunited with his family. Yet, while buying cereal for his son, he was found carrying a gun for self-defense in his high crime neighborhood. Under California’s 1994 Three Strikes law, his prior convictions counted against him, and he was sentenced to 25 years to life.
Interning at Unite the People Inc., a nonprofit criminal defense law firm, I have encountered countless cases like Lewis’s. In the “tough on crime” 1990s, legislators enacted various statutes, including California’s Three Strikes law, designed to punish and isolate rather than rehabilitate those who commit crimes.
Times have changed. From 2020 to 2024, former Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón pushed for reforms that emphasized rehabilitation, including a gun and gang enhancement law that offered Lewis a lifeline. The judge in Lewis’s resentencing court ordered him released on time served and, with empathy, told him that he deserved a far less severe sentence than he originally received.
Yet, volunteering for Gascón’s reelection campaign in 2024, I noticed yet another shift: a sharp decline in public interest for criminal justice reform. Many nonprofits that donated to his previous campaign, flourishing during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, no longer exist. Even high-profile politicians, like former Vice President Kamala Harris, who originally supported Gascón, withheld their contributions this time. Criminal justice reform is no longer a top agenda item for many.
This rapid loss of momentum reveals a troubling truth: criminal justice reform, and other forms of activism, have become trends.
Social media plays a major role in this phenomenon. Viral hashtags have pushed movements to heights at unprecedented speed, sparking much needed conversations about systemic injustices across the nation. But it is precisely this speed that leaves little room for sustainable activism. Unlike many pre-social media movements, such as the Vietnam War protests — which built traction over many years and spurred global change — today’s movements peak and wane just as quickly.
The problem is rooted in our postmodernist society. Culture, simulations of reality, are mass-produced to the point that culture has become part of our reality. Simulation and reality are no longer distinguishable; social media operates in this hyperreality. Activism on social media often prioritizes virality, which replaces sustainable advocacy in the real world.
To counter this trend, we need to implement more engaging, accessible civic education that teaches a new generation of activists not only the importance of taking action beyond social media, but also how to do so effectively.
When criminal justice is reduced to a trend, the consequences extend beyond a simple change of mind. For Lewis, it is 25 years of his life. As incarcerated people with felony convictions cannot vote on a system that most directly impacts them, the responsibility to act thoughtfully falls to us.
The lives of people like Lewis deserve more than fleeting trends; they demand our sustained commitment to justice.
Kathy Duan is a senior at The Webb Schools and a passionate advocate.
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