Hostname: page-component-669899f699-rg895 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-02T21:44:58.715Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Emergence of Penal Extremism in California: A Dynamic View of Institutional Structures and Political Processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Michael C. Campbell
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines legal and political developments in California in the 1970s and early 1980s that led to extreme changes in the state's use of imprisonment. It uses historical research methods to illustrate how institutional and political processes interacted in dynamic ways that continuously unsettled and reshaped the crime policy field. It examines crime policy developments before and after the passage of the state's determinate sentencing law to highlight the law's long-term political implications and to illustrate how it benefited interest groups pushing for harsher punishment. It emphasizes the role executives played in shaping these changes, and how the law's significance was as much political as legal because it transformed the institutional logics that structured criminal lawmaking. These changes, long sought by the law enforcement lobby, facilitated crime's politicization and ushered in a new era of frenetic and punitive changes in criminal law and punishment. This new context benefited politicians who supported extreme responses to crime and exposed the crime policy process to heightened degrees of popular scrutiny. The result was a political obsession with crime that eschewed moderation and prioritized prison expansion above all else.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , June 2014 , pp. 377 - 409
Copyright
© 2014 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

The author would like to thank Josh Page, Heather Schoenfeld, Phil Goodman, the editors, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments in improving the article. Also, I would like to thank Chieh Tung for her research assistance.

References

Anand, Perna (2012) Winners and Losers: Corrections and Higher Education in California. California Common Sense. Available at: http://www.cacs.org/ca/article/44 (accessed on March 6, 2014).Google Scholar
Arthur D. Little, Inc. (1980) “Determinate and Indeterminate Sentence Law Comparisons Study: Feasibility of Adapting Law to a Sentencing Commission-Guideline Approach,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Barker, Vanessa (2009) The Politics of Imprisonment: How the Democratic Process Shapes the Way America Punishes Offenders. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnhart, Brent A. (1976) “Letter from Brent a Barnhart, to Governor Jerry Brown Jr,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Beckett, Katherine, & Sasson, Theodore (2000) The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.Google Scholar
Beckett, Katherine (1997) Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Berk, Richard A., Brackman, Harold, & Lesser, Selma (1977) A Measure of Justice: An Empirical Study of Changes in the California Penal Code, 1955–1971. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bonien, Rodney (1983) “Letter from Rodney J. Bonien, Legislative Secretary to Governor Deukmejian to Robert Presley Regarding Senate Bill 50,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Boyarsky, Bill (1982) “Deukmejian Keeps Court, Crime at Center of Campaign: GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Suggests Shorter Terms for Justices, Ducks Local Issues,” Los Angeles Times, B3, January 18, 1982.Google Scholar
Briggs, John V. (1976) “Letter to Governor Jerry Brown Jr. 9/1/1976,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Bureau of Justice Statistics (2000) “Incarceration Rates for Prisoners, under State Or Federal Jurisdiction, Per 100,000 Residents, 1977–98,” National Prisoner Statistics Data Series (NPS-1). Washington, DC.Google Scholar
California Secretary of State (2003) “A History of California Initiatives,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Campbell, Michael (2007) “Criminal Disenfranchisement Reform in California: A Deviant Case Study,” 9 Punishment & Society 177–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Michael (2011) “Politics, Prisons, and Law Enforcement: An Examination of the Emergence of ‘Law and Order’ Politics in Texas,” 45 Law & Society Rev. 631–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Michael (2012) “Ornery Alligators and Soap on a Rope: Texas Prosecutors and Punishment Reform in the Lone Star State,” 16 Theoretical Criminology 289–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Michael C, & Schoenfeld, Heather (2013) “The Transformation of America's Penal Order: A Historicized Political Sociology of Punishment,” 119 American J. of Sociology 1375–423.Google Scholar
Deukmejian, Governor George (1983) “Solutions for Prison Overcrowding: A Special Message by Governor George Deukmejian,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Deukmejian, Governor George (1984) “Letter to the California Senate,” From the Papers of Robert Presley. California State Archives.Google Scholar
Farr, Bill (1981) “Deukmejian Sees Return of Mafioso: He Warns That Mob May Fill Void Created by Prison Sentences,” Los Angeles Times, A1, May 30, 1981.Google Scholar
Feeley, Malcolm, & Rubin, Edward L. (1998) Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the Courts Reform America's Prisons. New York, NY: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Garland, David (2001) The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garland, David (2012) “The 2012 Sutherland Address: Penality and the Penal State,” 51 Criminology 475–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gartner, Rosemary, Doob, Anthony, & Zimring, Frank (2011) “The Past as Prologue? Decarceration in California Then and Now,” 10 Criminology & Public Policy 291–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillam, Jerry (1981) “Deukmejian Prods Brown on Rising Crime Rate,” Los Angeles Times, A9, February 12, 1981.Google Scholar
Gilmore, Ruth Wilson (2007) Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Goodman, Phillip (2012) “Another Second Chance: Rethinking Rehabilitation through the Lens of California's Prison Fire Camps,” 59 Social Problems 437–58.Google Scholar
Gottschalk, Marie (2006) The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hagan, John (2010) Who Are the Criminals? The Politics of Crime Policy from the Age of Roosevelt to the Age of Reagan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hager, Philip (1982) “Deukmejian Hits Ruling on Hypnosis,” Los Angeles Times, A3, March 26, 1982.Google Scholar
Hurst, John (1983) “Change in Sentencing Laws Could Ease Prison Problem,” Los Angeles Times, B1, December 27, 1983.Google Scholar
Ingram, Carl (1981) “GOP Demands Speed on Crime Bills,” Los Angeles Times, B3, April 2, 1981.Google Scholar
Jacobs, David, & Carmichael, Jason T. (2001) “The Politics of Punishment across Time and Space: A Pooled Time-Series Analysis of Imprisonment Rates,” 80 Social Forces 61–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keyssar, Alexander (2000) The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Kline, J. Anthony (1976) “Enrolled Bill Report, Governor's Office, Legal Affairs Department, Bill Number SB42, from J. Anthony Kline, 9/15/76, Recommendation: Sign,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin, Trow, Martin, & Coleman, James (1956) Union Democracy: The Inside Politics of the International Typographical Union. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Lipson, Albert J., & Peterson, Mark A. (1980) “California Justice Under Determinate Sentencing: A Review and Agenda for Research,” Rand Report R-2497-CRB.Google Scholar
Luther, Claudia (1981a) “Newly Balanced Crime Panel May Spur Legislation,” Los Angeles Times, A3, January 25, 1981.Google Scholar
Luther, Claudia (1981b) “Brown Urges Sales Tax Hike to Fight Crime,” Los Angeles Times, B1, May 7, 1981.Google Scholar
Lynch, Mona (2010) Sunbelt Justice: Arizona and the Transformation of American Punishment. Stanford, CA: Stanford Law Books.Google Scholar
Mathews, Jay (1983) “A Cautious Conservative Takes Over from Brown in California,” Los Angeles Times, A:3, January 3, 1983.Google Scholar
McGirr, Lisa (2001) Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Messinger, Sheldon L., & Johnson, Phillip E. (1978) California's Determinate Sentencing Statute: History and Issues. Presentation. Determinate Sentencing: Reform or Regression? Berkeley, California: National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, US Department of Justice.Google Scholar
Miller, Lisa L. (2008) The Perils of Federalism: Race, Poverty, and the Politics of Crime Control. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Lisa L. (1975) “Letter to Members of Senate Judiciary, from John A. Nejedly, Re: SB42, Special Order of Business,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Nejedly, John (1976) “Enrolled Bill Report, Bill Number SB 42,” California State Legislature.Google Scholar
Paddock, Richard C. (1981a) “Deukmejian Blames Rise in Crime on State's Judges,” Los Angeles Times, A7, July 1, 1981.Google Scholar
Paddock, Richard C. (1981b) “Brown Calls for Building More Prisons,” Los Angeles Times, SD A1, July 2, 1981.Google Scholar
Page, Joshua (2011) The “Toughest Beat” : Politics, Punishment, and the Prison Officers Union in California. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perkinson, Robert (2010) Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire. New York: Metropolitan Books.Google Scholar
Presley, Robert (1982) “Letter to the Editor,” Unpublished Letter to the Editor. California State Archives.Google Scholar
Presley, Robert (1983) “Bill Statement on Senate Bill 56,” California Legislature. California State Archives.Google Scholar
Presley, Robert (1984) “Letter to Governor Deukmejian,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Representatives of Arthur D. Little, Inc. (1983) “Letter from Arthur D. Little, Inc., to Senator Robert Presley, Subject Senate Bill 56-California Sentencing Commission,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Savelsberg, Joachim J. (1994) “Knowledge, Domination, and Criminal Punishment,” 99 American J. of Sociology 911–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoenfeld, Heather (2010) “Mass Incarceration and the Paradox of Prison Conditions Litigation,” 44 Law & Society Rev. 731–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrag, Peter (1998) Paradise Lost: California's Experience, America's Future. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Sieroty, Alan (1976) “Memorandum from Alan Sieroty, Chairman, Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Simon, Jonathon (2007) Governing Through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Skelton, Nancy (1981) “Deukmejian Hints at Vote Strategy: Possible Gubernatorial Bid May Attack Brown Leadership,” Los Angeles Times, A25, April 25, 1981.Google Scholar
Sparks, Richard (2001) “ ‘Bringin’ It All Back Home’: Populism, Media Coverage and the Dynamics of Locality and Globality in the Politics of Crime Control,” in Sparks, Richard, ed., Crime. Devon, UK: Willan. 194–213.Google Scholar
Staff (1976a) “Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice, Staff Concerns Regarding SB42,” SB42 Legislative Bill File. California State Archives.Google Scholar
Staff (1976b) “Staff Concerns and Proposals Over SB 42,” SB42 Legislative Bill File. California State Archives.Google Scholar
Staff (1981) “Synopsis of Law and Order Legislation Passed by 67th Legislature: Anti-Crime Bills,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Staff (1983) “Senate Committee on Judiciary Hearing Report,” California Senate. (SB50). California State Archives.Google Scholar
Stuntz, William J. (2008) “Unequal Justice,” 121 Harvard Law Rev. 1969–2040.Google Scholar
Sutton, John R. (2004) “The Political Economy of Imprisonment in the Affluent Western Democracies, 1960–1990,” 69 American Sociological Rev. 170–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walmsley, Roy (2005) “World Prison Population List (Sixth Edition),” King's College, London: International Centre for Prison Studies.Google Scholar
Woodsworth, Douglas R. (1976) “Memorandum from Douglas R. Woodworth to All Judges in San Diego County, 11/5/1976, Subject: Nejedly Bill (SB42)—Effective July 1, 1977,” California State Archives.Google Scholar
Zimring, Frank, & Johnson, David T. (2006) “Public Opinion and the Governance of Punishment in Democratic Political Systems,” 605 Annals: American Association of Political and Social Science 266–80.Google Scholar
Zimring, Franklin, Hawkins, Gordon, & Kamin, Sam (2001) Punishment and Democracy: Three Strikes and You're Out in California. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar