Barry Krisberg interviewed on KPCC, March 13, 2014

Barry Krisberg … says the findings surprised him. “I had assumed private prisons were taking a lot of low-risk inmates,” he says. “That if you went to a private prison, you’d find a lot of old, Anglo prisoners. That’s not the case.”

Barry Krisberg quoted in San Jose Mercury News, March 6, 2014

The proposed legislation is “moderate and reasonable…. What we see here are some necessary fixes to the current law,” Krisberg said Thursday. Some past legislation, proposed after sensational crimes “went overboard and ended up being a Trojan horse for what I would call extremely conservative reforms.” But in the case of the proposed “Audrie’s Law,” he said, “this law is very targeted on specific problems.”

Barry Krisberg quoted on KPCC, March 3, 2014

“It was a dramatic change in how long the parole board could make parolees wait for their next hearing,” said Barry Krisberg. “The evidence was pretty clear that this was causing people to stay in prison longer.”

Barry Krisberg quoted in San Francisco Daily Journal, February 27, 2014 (registration required)
Krisberg, of UC Berkeley, said the state should model the U.S. Sentencing Commission in creating guidelines for judges…. That approach, Krisberg said, has been modeled by other states. “In almost every state that has gone to a guidelines approach, it has resulted in violent offenders serving more time, property and drug offenders serving less time, and basically overall the prison population is stabilizing or going down,” he said.

Barry Krisberg quoted in San Francisco Chronicle, January 30, 2014
We have the political theorists on board. What about average, middle-class Americans? Barry Krisberg … who has been advising the supporters of the bill, says you might be surprised. “If they can get it to the ballot, it will pass,” Krisberg says. “There’s been polling on this, and 60 percent of Californians say just because someone uses drugs, they don’t want that person to be incarcerated.”

Barry Krisberg quoted in Daily Journal, January 27, 2014 (registration required)
“It looks like the state has come a way down the road in terms of embracing reforms that have been on the table before and they haven’t considered before,” said Barry Krisberg.

Barry Krisberg quoted in San Jose Mercury News, January 14, 2014
“It’s what I call justice by geography. The juvenile court has wide disparities in the amount of penalties it connects to specific behaviors,” said Barry Krisberg …. “On average, Santa Clara (County) has lower sentences than other places. They’ve embraced the treatment and rehabilitation strategy”—a mission of California’s welfare and institutions code—”so this doesn’t completely surprise me.”

Barry Krisberg quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle, December 19, 2013 (registration required)

Krisberg said the ballot measure, if enacted, would result in “significant declines in the number of people in state prison….” “There appears to be tremendous support for the ideas in this proposal,” said Krisberg. “The question is, can they get it on the ballot? Collecting signatures takes a lot of money. But if it was on the ballot, based on the polling data I have seen, it would pass overwhelmingly.”

Barry Krisberg interviewed on KGO 810 News, December 18, 2013

But there’s still work to be done. “The one area that still needs quite a bit of work is mental health care for mentally ill kids across the nation. It’s a problem,” says Barry Krisberg.

Barry Krisberg quoted in AlJazeera America, December 12, 2013

Barry Krisberg, a senior fellow at UC Berkeley Law School, told Al Jazeera that while there are factors that mitigate criminal liability—such as mental illness, age and developmental disabilities—economic status is not one of them. “It just doesn’t make sense. The notion that because someone is wealthy, we shouldn’t hold them accountable is nutty.”