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If you\u2019ve heard Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert<\/a> speak at any point in the last half decade, you\u2019ve probably heard about her special disdain for two numbers: 47 and 57.<\/p>\n Those are the two ballot propositions that California voters passed overwhelmingly as part of the decades-long policy upheaval to reduce the state\u2019s crowded prisons<\/a> and make the legal system less punitive.<\/p>\n Now, riding a wave of public apprehension about crime, Schubert is running to be the next attorney general of California<\/a>. The career prosecutor is too politically savvy to say: \u201cI told you so.\u201d<\/p>\n But in a 75-minute conversation with CalMatters reporters earlier this month, she did, in fact, tell us so.<\/p>\n \u201cI have long been raising the alarm\u2026The consequences of 47 are very vivid now,\u201d she said, saying that the law effectively \u201cdecriminalized\u201d theft.<\/p>\n In fact, Proposition 47<\/a>, which voters passed in 2014<\/a>, reclassified certain crimes, including theft of items worth less than $950, as misdemeanors. Two years later, voters passed Prop. 57<\/a> making it easier for inmates charged with all but the most serious crimes to apply for early parole.<\/p>\n Schubert may sound like many in the state GOP<\/a> in her criticisms of California\u2019s liberal shift on criminal justice, but she isn\u2019t a Republican. Not any more. In 2018, after a bruising reelection battle to be Sacramento County\u2019s top prosecutor, she left the party<\/a> and became a \u201cno party preference\u201d voter.<\/p>\n This year she\u2019s hoping to unseat incumbent Democrat Rob Bonta<\/a>. But to finish in the top two in the June 7 primary and make it to the November ballot, she\u2019ll also need to snatch the \u201ctough on crime\u201d mantle<\/a> from Republicans Nathan Hochman<\/a> and Eric Early<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re at a time in California, right now, where people are reeling (from)\u2026a tsunami of poor public policies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Available crime statistics paint a more uncertain picture<\/a>. Recent reports from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst\u2019s Office<\/a> and the Public Policy Institute of California<\/a> found that reported crime has increased, but just back up to 2019 levels after a dip during the worst of the pandemic, while an alarming increase in the homicide rate follows a national trend.<\/p>\n Schubert discounts the official data, noting that crime is often underreported. \u201cTalk to the retailers or the people that are actually living it every day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For those voters with buyers\u2019 remorse<\/a> about the state\u2019s past criminal justice \u201creforms,\u201d Schubert is presenting herself as a tough, nonpartisan corrective.<\/p>\n Here are four other highlights from our conversation with Schubert:<\/p>\n Schubert made a name for herself in the Sacramento district attorney\u2019s office by using DNA forensics to prosecute cold cases. That work culminated in the arrest and prosecution of the \u201cGolden State Killer<\/a>\u201d who terrorized the Sacramento area in the 1970s and \u201980s. It has also taken Schubert to some of the darker corners of the human psyche \u2014 details she doesn\u2019t shy away from \u2014 though she prefers to talk about the victims.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we cannot recognize the human toll of crime in our policies and our laws, then we\u2019re failing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Schubert has made that human toll a centerpiece of her campaign. At a press conference last spring<\/a>, Schubert announced her candidacy surrounded, by the family members of serial murder victims, abducted children and slain police officers. Campaign kick-offs are usually upbeat affairs, but Schubert recounted many of the crimes in detail.<\/p>\n A few months later, her campaign launched a true crime podcast<\/a>, with each episode exploring a case that Schubert\u2019s office prosecuted.<\/p>\n In the interview, Schubert, perhaps mindful of the state electorate\u2019s recent track record of voting against tough on crime measures, stressed that she isn\u2019t solely interested in locking people away. The two most memorable moments of her career, she said: The 2018 arrest and prosecution of the Golden State Killer, but also the 2020 exoneration through DNA evidence of Ricky Davis<\/a>, an El Dorado County man who spent 15 years in prison for murder.<\/p>\n Schubert couldn\u2019t be mistaken for a progressive prosecutor, but she borrowed the language of the left to hammer the state\u2019s criminal justice system and the Legislature\u2019s crime policies.<\/p>\n Exhibit 1: Though Prop. 57<\/a> makes it easier for many prison inmates to qualify for parole consideration, those convicted of the most serious offenses are denied that extra leeway. Those 23 crimes are designated \u201cviolent felonies<\/a>\u201d under state law. Conservatives regularly highlight the most deplorable offenses<\/a> that are deemed \u201cnonviolent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe can be the most progressive state you want to say we are,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when we continue to tell our community that domestic violence is a nonviolent crime\u2026I find that atrocious.\u201d<\/p>\n Schubert also criticized the state for being too generous awarding good behavior credits to inmates \u2014 but also called on the state to spend more on rehabilitation.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re going to hand out credits like Halloween candy without adequate rehab, we are not doing a service to that individual, to that crime victim, and to our community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nA grisly resume<\/h3>\n
Liberal language, conservative critiques<\/h3>\n