Realignment was a fundament change in how we balance criminal justice powers, led to the largest one-year decline in prison pops anywhere, and could be adopted widely.
ALSO:
The state admitted in Plata that inadequate medical care due to overcrowding led to ~60 preventable deaths per year.
Realignment IS A CAPITAL ISSUE. But abt our "hidden" death penalty.
So the total person-years destroyed by prison DWARFS death row.
But we also misinvest SO much lobbying effort focusing on the salient but few executions.
Ex: How much more human misery would be prevented if 1000s of more pro bono hours ended up in misdemeanor court instead?
I get the political significance of an intentional killing, vs malicious indifference, but the line is... increasingly blurry here.