PJLC Presents at UC Berkeley on Implementing the
RJA

The Peace and Justice Law Center (PJLC) presented at UC Berkeley’s Racial Justice Act Symposium, the first statewide conference convened by the Berkeley Criminal Law & Justice Center and focused entirely on how California’s Racial Justice Act (RJA) is being implemented in practice .

The Berkeley Criminal Law & Justice Center was founded by former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin to bring together legal scholars, practitioners, and advocates working to translate criminal law reform into real-world change. The symposium marked the Center’s first major public convening and drew several hundred attendees from across California, reflecting strong statewide interest in moving from passage of the RJA to effective enforcement.

Speakers included Assemblymember Ash Kalra, public defenders, movement lawyers, organizers, and policy advocates engaged in racial justice and criminal legal reform. Panels examined both the promise of the RJA and the structural barriers that continue to limit its impact in courts across the state.

PJLC’s presentation focused on movement lawyering and why the Racial Justice Act will only succeed if it is supported by organized communities, transparent data, and coordinated legal strategies. While impact litigation can play an important role, PJLC emphasized that court victories alone often fail to produce lasting change unless they are connected to broader efforts that build power and accountability.

Drawing from its work in Orange County, PJLC described how enforcement of the RJA is frequently stalled by prosecutors’ refusal to share data needed to identify racial disparities. PJLC explained why it turned first to public records litigation, alongside the ACLU, to force disclosure of prosecutorial data—an essential foundation for bringing effective RJA claims and developing test cases that can benefit large numbers of people.

The presentation also highlighted the importance of centering the communities most harmed by the criminal legal system. PJLC discussed how directly confronting antiblack racism, even in counties where Black residents make up a smaller share of the population, strengthens racial justice enforcement overall by addressing the most severe structural disparities.

PJLC’s participation in the symposium reflects its broader strategy of pairing litigation with coalition-building, data analysis, and community partnerships. Building on this work, PJLC is using newly obtained prosecutorial data to identify RJA test cases and support defenders and impacted communities in advancing systemic racial justice reforms.