Criminal
Dec. 22, 2020
The criminal justice pendulum is headed in the right direction, but prosecutors should proceed with caution
County prosecutors are embracing the obsoletion of misdemeanors as a remedy for an overburdened criminal justice system, relying on the faulty notion that we can ignore smaller problems today and not have bigger ones tomorrow.
Eugene M. Hyman
Judge (Ret.)
San Clara County Superior Court
Santa Clara Univ Law School
Eugene is a retired judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court, where for 20 years he presided over cases in the criminal, civil, probate, family and delinquency divisions of the court. He has presided over an adult domestic violence court and in 1999 presided over the first juvenile domestic violence and family violence court in the United States.
County prosecutors are embracing the obsoletion of misdemeanors as a remedy for an overburdened criminal justice system, relying on the faulty notion that we can ignore smaller problems today and not have bigger ones tomorrow.
Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton announced in September a pilot program under which the office would not pursue misdemeanors, the goal being, "to divert low-level recreational users out of t...
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