The fact that more than 50 percent of Americans have an immediate family member either currently or formerly incarcerated tells you a lot about just how defining a feature of American culture incarceration has become. Chesa Boudin Read Quote
I was in diapers when my parents left me with the babysitter to participate in an armored car robbery. They never came home. Chesa Boudin Read Quote
My mother negotiated a plea deal, and my father went to trial. I think one thing we notice in their case that kind of stands out is how, in some ways, arbitrary the outcomes in the criminal justice system can be. And they did basically the same thing, identical thing. Chesa Boudin Read Quote
Homelessness, open air drug use and mental illness – which we all see in this city – are things we’ve been relying on the DA’s office and the jails to deal with. That’s really expensive, inhumane and ineffective. Chesa Boudin Read Quote
In any campaign you make a lot of promises and you talk about a wide range of issues. When you’re elected, the work of accomplishing those goals has to be sequenced. You can’t do everything at once. Chesa Boudin Read Quote
One of my priorities is giving victims the right to choose different paths to restoration and to healing. It’s prioritizing having restitution available for economic harm, having victim services for the trauma and also recognizing that victims are far more than simply pieces of evidence to be used in order to secure a lengthy prison sentence. Chesa Boudin Read Quote
Our criminal justice system is failing all of us. It is not keeping us safe. It is contributing to a vicious cycle of crime and punishment. Chesa Boudin Read Quote
Years now, decades, of visiting my parents behind bars taught me hard lessons about how broken the criminal justice system is – about how devoid of compassion it is. It’s not healing the harm that victims experience. It’s not rehabilitating people. And in many ways, it’s making us less safe. Chesa Boudin Read Quote
Politics has always been personal for me. You know, growing up, I was in a very politically conscious household. We engaged with intellectuals and artists and academics from around the world who were thinking critically about politics and the intersection of politics and public life. Chesa Boudin Read Quote
The problem with money bail, for those who aren’t familiar with it, is that it puts a price tag on freedom. It says to someone who is wealthy that no matter how dangerous you are, you can buy your way out. Chesa Boudin Read Quote
