PJLC Helps Rewrite California's Anti-Gang Law

On October 8, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 333 into law, enacting major reforms to California’s gang enhancement statute with key drafting support from the Peace and Justice Law Center (PJLC). The law, which took effect on January 1, 2022, narrowed the scope of gang prosecutions and raised the standards prosecutors must meet before imposing gang-related sentence enhancements.

For decades, California’s gang laws allowed prosecutors wide discretion to label neighborhoods as gangs, residents as gang members, and ordinary crimes as gang-related. Those practices routinely added years or decades to prison sentences and fell disproportionately on Black and Latino communities. PJLC’s work on AB 333 grew out of years of litigation and movement lawyering challenging those abuses and documenting how gang enhancements were being used as a proxy for racial profiling.

PJLC’s involvement began in 2020, when Executive Director Sean Garcia-Leys was invited to testify before the Governor’s Committee on Revision of the Penal Code. PJLC helped explain how existing law rewarded overbroad prosecutions and proposed specific statutory changes. Those recommendations became the backbone of AB 333 and were refined as the bill moved through the Legislature.

AB 333 tightened the legal definition of a gang, limited what crimes can be used to prove gang activity, and required prosecutors to show that alleged gang conduct involved organized criminal activity rather than reputation or association. It also made it harder for gang allegations to prejudice juries by allowing separate proceedings on gang enhancements when requested by the defense.

At the same time, legal scholars and advocates note that AB 333 is not a complete solution. Racial disparities in charging and sentencing persist, and continued oversight is necessary to ensure the reforms are applied consistently and as intended.

PJLC continues to monitor how AB 333 is implemented in courts across California, support defense attorneys raising challenges under the new law, and collect data to assess whether the reforms are delivering on their promise of fairer trials and fewer unjust sentences.