Then District Attorney Chesa Boudin speaks to his supporters at a campaign fundraiser on June 3, 2022 in San Francisco, California.

During last year’s midterm elections, Republican candidates across the country tried to exploit sensationalistic media coverage and voter polls that identified crime and public safety as a top issue of concern. The manufactured frenzy largely failed as an electoral strategy — Democrats far outperformed expectations and actually picked up a seat in the Senate. Still, too many Democrats took the bait and sound criminal justice policy is suffering as a consequence.

In New York state, officials rolled back pretrial release reforms for poor people who can’t afford bail. Meanwhile, despite widespread claims about being defunded, police budgets across the country surged without any demands for accountability. Even in liberal San Francisco, the mayor’s office closed a supervised drug consumption site while ratcheting up policing of drug users with results as predictable they were tragic: the city is suffering its most fatal year of overdoses on record, by far.

Devastating as it is to watch, the current public discourse and policy conversations surrounding criminal justice are too often devoid of evidence or even, it seems, short-term memory. Instead of showing leadership, most politicians are kneecapping efforts to move toward workable solutions. As I learned during my two and a half........

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