Nicholas Goldberg: What happened to criminal justice reform?

It seems like only yesterday that criminal justice reform was in vogue.

Progressives were being elected as prosecutors. Laws were passed to relieve prison overcrowding and divert offenders from the system who needed treatment, not jail time. Sentencing excesses from the crack era and the three-strikes era were rolled back. The bail system and the death penalty were on the defensive.

Then the inevitable backlash came. As crime rates crept up from their near historically low levels, the mood soured and conservative tough-on-crime attitudes began to reemerge, clashing with the liberal agenda.

Chesa Boudin, the progressive district attorney in challenge last year.