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The California Experiment

Spurred by a 2011 Supreme Court mandate, California has led the nation in reducing its prison population. The Marshall Project, working with media partners, is exploring the consequences for Californians and the lessons for other states struggling with the burden of incarceration. The California Experiment is supported by a grant from The California Endowment.

The Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove, Calif., where Cody Garland tried to commit suicide.
The California Experiment April 23, 2019
Who Begs To Go To Prison? California Jail Inmates
Effort to cut prison overcrowding puts some jails in crisis.
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The California Experiment December 21, 2018
How One County Became a Lab for California’s Prison Reform
San Joaquin went all in. Now it’s a model.
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Shattered glass from a vehicle near the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco in December.
The California Experiment December 20, 2018
The Great California Prison Experiment
Crime is up. The mystery is why.
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A photo of Colleen Khalifa, right, with her son Shawn Khalifa, center, and her daughter Jennifer Ponce, left, and Ponce’s son Jackson Ponce, taken during a visit to the Coalinga State Hospital where Shawn was being treated.
The California Experiment June 27, 2018
Can It Be Murder If You Didn’t Kill Anyone?
A distinctly American legal doctrine holds getaway drivers and lookouts as responsible for a death as the actual killer. California is having second thoughts.
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District Attorney Summer Stephan in San Diego on Tuesday. Stephan appeared to hold off a challenge from a Soros-backed candidate in San Diego’s primary.
The California Experiment June 6, 2018
California Voters Reject Prosecutor 'Reformers'
Candidates backed by Soros, others are still pressing ahead in other parts of the country.
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San Diego Deputy Public Defender Genevieve Jones-Wright announced last July that she was running for San Diego County District Attorney.
The California Experiment May 23, 2018
Prosecutor Elections Now a Front Line in the Justice Wars
By Paige St. John and
Michael Mejia during a pre-trial hearing in February where Mejia was charged with murder for the killings of Officer Keith Boyer in Whittier and his own cousin, 47-year-old Roy Torres, in East Los Angeles earlier that day.
The California Experiment May 10, 2018
Whose Fault is Michael Christopher Mejia?
A cop killing in California fuels a reform backlash.
By and Richard Winton
Judge Thelton Henderson, who has presided over a series of prison cases that ultimately forced radical changes in the system, at the University of California Berkeley School of Law.
The California Experiment April 23, 2018
The Catalyst
Thelton Henderson transformed California’s criminal justice system. Now comes the backlash.
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