Decarceration and…?

Public Safety Realignment significantly changed spending behavior in California’s city governments. Taking changes in spending behavior as an indication of policy prioritization, I provide statistical and descriptive evidence that the design of the Realignment policies led city officials to de-prioritize enforcement when dealing with the policies’ effects. I use a policy feedback framework to explain why this happened. The provisions within Realignment that led to large reductions in the state’s incarcerated population also made local policy makers feel that increased law enforcement would lead to redundancy, thus exacerbating the “revolving door” problem in their local jails.