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May 31, 2023 | 10:35 p.m
Warning: Graphic content
Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a controversial progressive prosecutor who was fired by voters last year for his soft-crime policies, is taking over as head of a new criminal justice center at the UC Berkeley School of Law.
Boudin, 42, has been named executive director of the school’s Criminal Law & Justice Center, he announced Wednesday in an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle.
“In my new role, just as I did as District Attorney, I will continue to draw on networks of attorneys, activists, judges and legal practitioners to support reform and advance safety in a way that is rigorous, principled and responsive to the lived experiences of the communities directly affected,” he wrote.
“The center will systematically evaluate the results of specific policies and communicate to the public what policy changes are essential to improving public safety and equity,” Boudin said.
“Electoral politics will only advance the criminal justice reform movement so far. Winning a few major elections alone is not enough to bring about lasting change. I learned a lot during my tenure, including that people’s feelings are often more important than data and facts.”
Boudin, who faced criticism in the City of Gold as a criminal prosecutor, was voted out in a recall election in June – and announced in August he would not seek to retake the post.
Chase Boudin, 42, the progressive San Francisco prosecutor who was ousted from office by voters in June, said he is now the founding director of Berkeley Law School’s new Criminal Justice Center. AP
Critics said the left-wing prosecutors’ policies contributed to a rise in crime in the city, as drug dealers publicly sold their wares and shoplifting and robberies were rampant.
About 60% of San Francisco voters voted in favor of recall.
But in his editorial, Boudin stuck to his progressive stance, claiming that it’s Republicans and the “sensational media” that are making public safety an issue – calling it an “artificial frenzy.”
“In New York state, officials have rolled back pre-trial release reforms for poor people who cannot afford bail,” Boudin said.
Boudin has been named executive director of the school’s Criminal Law & Justice Center, he announced Wednesday in an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle.MediaNews Group via Getty Images
“Meanwhile, despite widespread claims of funding cuts, police budgets across the country have skyrocketed without demand for accountability.
“Even in liberal San Francisco, the mayor’s office shut down a regulated drug consumption facility while tightening surveillance of drug users, with results that were both predictable and tragic: the city is experiencing by far its deadliest year from drug overdoses on record.”
At Berkeley, Boudin will conduct research and advocate for criminal justice reform, the school’s dean said in a press release announcing the move.
“Since joining Berkeley Law, I have wanted to create a criminal justice and justice center to further advance the important work our amazing faculty and clinics do in this area,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkely Law School, in a statement.
“I am very excited to open the center and that Chesa Boudin will be its first managing director,” said Chemerinsky.
“Chesa was selected after a nationwide search and has extensive experience across the criminal justice system. He has thought deeply about the system and I can think of no one better able to establish and lead this important center.”
Boudin is the son of Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, who were members of the far-left terrorist organization Weather Underground.
Both were convicted of murder and serving decades of prison time in the deadly 1981 ambush of a Brink armored truck in Rockland County, New York.
The 14-month-old future prosecutor grew up in Chicago with adoptive parents.
“Both of my birth parents were arrested when I was a baby and together served 62 years in prison,” Boudin wrote in his editorial.
“A lifetime of visiting her behind bars, coupled with the years I spent as public defender and then as elected attorney general, have shown me the disastrous failure of California and the country’s current approach to justice.”
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