Giving Compass' Take:

• The Marshall Project examines how crime in California has been rising ever since the state tried to reform its incarceration policies. Is there a direct connection — or are the factors more complicated?

• Those in the criminal justice sector across the country should pay close attention to what's going on in California so that programs can address over-incarceration without jeopardizing public safety.

• Here's a strategy for evidence-based prison reform.

Over the past decade, California has led the nation in reducing its prison population. After the Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that conditions in the state’s overcrowded penitentiaries had “fallen short of minimum constitutional requirements,” lawmakers and voters enacted a series of measures to reduce sentences for many crimes and divert offenders to the authority of the counties.

From the outset, critics have warned that putting fewer offenders in prison would lead to a crime wave. Now the first serious attempt is underway to roll back the reforms, backed by law enforcement groups and already planted on the 2020 ballot. Sponsors claim the prison downsizing has “threatened the public safety of Californians and their children from violent criminals.”

In fact, violent crime has increased in the years since 2011, when California embarked on its campaign — called “realignment,” beginning with Assembly Bill 109 — to make the state’s prisons more humane.

The mystery is why.

Read the full article about the rise of crime in California by Abbie Vansickle and Manuel Villa at The Marshall Project.