Case Explained: Advocates Urge CA Candidates to Embrace Prevention-Focused Crime Platform – Legal Perspective

As California’s 2026 gubernatorial race begins to take shape, a coalition of criminal justice reform advocates and policy organizations is pressing candidates to adopt a sweeping platform centered on prevention, housing and community-based care, arguing that voters are increasingly rejecting punitive approaches to public safety.

The proposal, known as the “Eight Big Ideas” platform, was developed by the Ella Baker Center Action Fund and Vera Action, with support from a broad coalition of advocacy groups. It outlines a set of policy priorities aimed at reshaping how the state approaches crime, homelessness, mental health and public safety, while redirecting resources away from incarceration and toward social services.

According to a January poll conducted by Change Research of more than 1,000 likely voters, Californians favor what advocates describe as a “serious about safety” approach over traditional “tough-on-crime” rhetoric by a 58-42 margin.

Michelle Parris, California director of Vera Action, in a phone interview with the Vanguard, said the platform is designed to reflect both empirical research and voter preferences.

“So Vera Action and Elevator Center Action Fund work together to articulate eight big ideas that are grounded in evidence, created in consultation with experts and understanding through polling what Californians actually want our next governor to do to deliver more safety, accountability, and justice,” Parris said.

She noted that the initiative comes at a moment of heightened political stakes.

“We know that as Californians are heading to the ballot box this year, the stakes are high,” Parris said. “California’s in the crosshairs of a federal government that attacks anyone who gets in the way of its war on immigrants and working people.”

The platform is structured around three broad areas: redefining law enforcement’s role, investing in safer and more livable communities, and ensuring that justice reforms are not rolled back. Advocates argue that these priorities are not only policy-driven but also politically viable, citing polling data showing strong support for alternatives to incarceration.

Parris said voters increasingly prefer shifting responsibility for non-criminal crises away from police.

“When we asked in a head-to-head about this approach, we found that these folks preferred other experts responding to crises involving mental health and homelessness and reserving police for serious crimes,” she said.

The platform calls for significant investments in mental health crisis response systems, including expanded funding for California’s 988 crisis hotline, as well as policies aimed at limiting federal immigration enforcement actions that advocates say undermine community safety.

At the same time, the initiative places heavy emphasis on housing as a central component of public safety policy. It proposes a $6.27 billion annual investment to address homelessness through expanded housing and supportive services.

Parris argued that public frustration with homelessness has not translated into support for punitive enforcement strategies.

“People are not fooled by encampment sleeps,” she said. “They realize, including many people who live in proximity to visible homelessness, that sleeping folks one block down doesn’t actually solve the issue.”

Instead, she said, voters favor long-term solutions rooted in housing stability.

“Ultimately, what people think is that housing and services, as the research shows time and again, are what actually are going to stop people from cycling between jail, prison, streets, and shelters,” Parris said.

The emphasis on housing and services is echoed by other organizations backing the platform, including the Western Center on Law and Poverty, which has focused extensively on the intersection of homelessness and the criminal legal system.

Brandon Greene, the organization’s director of policy and advocacy, said the platform aligns with what his group has observed in its work.

“From our vantage point, the Western Center focuses its work on anti-poverty, decriminalization and poverty, the various intersections of the criminal legal system,” Greene said.

Greene pointed specifically to provisions aimed at expanding housing access and reducing incarceration.

“When they say that the next governor can safely reduce mass incarceration across the state by closing at least four prisons and freeing funds that can be used to deliver safety and prosperity to Californians, that’s something that we support,” he said.

He argued that current spending priorities disproportionately favor enforcement over effective interventions.

“We spend a significant amount of time incarcerating folks, a significant amount of money doing enforcement actions on people who won’t be able to afford the penalties and people who have nowhere else to go,” Greene said.

Greene also highlighted the racial disparities embedded in existing systems, pointing to data from California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act board.

“We know through the RIPA Board data … that perpetually Black and Brown folks are stopped disproportionate to their population, disproportionate to the amount of contraband and other things that are found,” he said.

Those disparities, he added, have broader implications for public trust.

“When there is erosion in public trust because of the racially disproportionate policing, that that erosion of public trust also has erosion across trust and government broadly,” Greene said.

The platform also calls for expanded use of alternative crisis response models that rely on mental health professionals rather than law enforcement. Greene said such approaches are both more humane and more effective.

“We support alternative crisis response to people being arrested or approached in ways that are aggressive and hostile,” he said.

He noted that individuals experiencing homelessness or mental health crises are often drawn into the criminal legal system through repeated enforcement interactions, a cycle the platform aims to disrupt.

“So actually being system impacted is the on-ramp to the criminal legal system, and it also impacts you when you’re out there,” Greene said.

The platform’s emphasis on prevention extends beyond housing and mental health to include workforce development, diversion programs and reentry support, all of which advocates argue are more effective at reducing crime than incarceration.

Polling data cited by Vera Action suggests strong public backing for these approaches. Respondents ranked treatment for mental health and substance use disorders as the most effective crime reduction strategy, outperforming punitive measures such as increased policing or longer sentences.

Parris said this reflects a broader shift in public attitudes.

“People generally prefer the serious about safety message because it both talks about how to prevent crime by fully funding things like good schools, affordable housing, getting illegal guns off the streets,” she said.

That shift comes as crime rates in California remain at historically low levels, even as political rhetoric around public safety has intensified.

Advocates behind the platform argue that the current political moment presents both a risk and an opportunity. While some policymakers have moved toward more punitive policies in response to public concerns, they contend that such approaches are not supported by evidence or voter preferences.

Greene warned that recent trends suggest a retreat from earlier reform efforts.

“There has been a leaning into criminalization,” he said. “We see this with a lot of the bills that are being introduced in the legislature and some of the messaging.”

He described the shift as part of a broader “center rightward” movement in criminal justice policy, with potentially significant consequences for marginalized communities.

At the same time, he argued that the platform represents an effort to reassert a different vision.

“I think collectively, these big eight platform issues stand for the proposition of really creating a more fair, equitable California that actually invests resources in ways that are smart and in ways that are effective,” Greene said.

For advocates, the ultimate goal is to influence the gubernatorial campaign itself. Parris said Vera Action plans to engage directly with candidates through briefings and outreach efforts.

“So we are going to do outreach to a lot of the candidates and do these kinds of briefings where we familiarize them with both the policies and also reflect back the polling,” she said.

Whether candidates embrace the platform remains to be seen, but its backers argue that the political incentives are increasingly aligned with reform.

“Our polling shows that Californians do not want ‘tough-on-crime’ fearmongering that divides us and fails to create safer communities for all,” Parris said in a statement accompanying the platform’s release. “They want ‘serious about safety’ solutions.”

Greene framed the stakes in broader terms, linking the debate over public safety to questions of racial justice and democratic governance.

“At a time in which all things civil rights and racial justice are under threat and attack, every one of these eight points in this platform are racial justice issues,” he said.

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California governor race Criminal Justice Reform Ella Baker Center homelessness policy public safety polling Vera Action