In 2020, San Joaquin District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar made headlines when she resigned from the California District Attorney Association (CDAA) after noting the organization has been opposing criminal justice reform for many years.
While that action was notable enough, it was even more so because Verber Salazar is not a progressive liberal like much of the reform movement—instead she is a lifelong Republican in a relatively conservative county.
In a 2020 interview with the Vanguard, Salazar noted the CDAA’s opposition to Proposition 47, which cleaned up past criminal histories and felony convictions and changed the law where a person could steal up to $950 and get away with a misdemeanor (two separate parts of the same proposition), and Proposition 64, which legalized marijuana.
In her interview with Everyday Injustice she explained her support for reforms and the need to find a balance between protecting the public and opposing mass incarceration.
