California district attorney blasts Newsom’s leadership: ‘The blood of the children...is on your hands'

The Fresno County district attorney condemned Gov. Gavin Newsom's changes to the state's bail policies amid COVID-19, in light of a recent crime spike.

Newsom, who has made efforts to reform California's criminal justice system while in office, initiated the release of thousands of nonviolent state inmates starting in April and announced in September that he would be closing a state prison next year.

But locals say some of the prisoners who have been released, including some with mental illnesses, are violent.

"Gov. Newsom ... claims that declining prison populations is the reason why he's doing this, and he applauds himself and criminal justice reformers for bringing the numbers down. While I'm not an opponent of criminal justice reform, I am an opponent of misinformation and lies,"  Lisa Smittcamp said during a Thursday press conference.

She added that Newsom omitted the fact that he released "violent criminals" when touting the state's decreasing number of inmates. "It's just another example of poor management on the state level," she said.

"No one states the obvious: that Gov. Newsom ignores the drug-addicted people laying in the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles and all the other cities in California like Fresno while paying attention to how to best protect the inmates from prison... (Read more)

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