SAN FRANCISCO—Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, 42, who received criticism for not being tough enough on crime and was recalled in 2022 announced on Wednesday, May 31, that he is now the Founding Executive director of the new Criminal Law & Justice Center at the University of California Berkeley, School of Law.  

“I’m thrilled to join the nation’s premier public law school and engage with brilliant scholars and students to drive meaningful change by elevating the lived experience of those directly impacted,” Boudin said in a statement. “A lifetime of visiting my biological parents in prison and my work as a public defender and district attorney have made clear that our system fails to keep communities safe and fails to treat them equitably.” 

Boudin’s parents were said to have been a part of Weather Underground which is classified as a far-left militant terrorist group. His father David Gilbert was convicted of felony murder in connection with the Brinks’ heist in 1981, which left two police officers and a guard dead. His mother, Kathy Boudin, was also convicted and paroled in 2003. She died in 2022.

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Boudin said his new position will better serve his goals of reforming the criminal justice system, and briefly reflected on his ouster from office by acknowledging that voters didn’t feel safe in San Francisco despite “data and facts” that showed his more lenient approach did not make crime in the city worse. He also announced to several publications that he will not be running again for office in 2024. 

“Electoral politics will only take the criminal justice reform movement so far,” he wrote. “Winning a few big elections isn’t enough, on its own, to create lasting change. I learned a lot while in office, including that how people feel often matters more than data and facts.”

Boudin has identified four cornerstones for the center: policy advocacy, research, an annual conference, and education. This will involve legislative initiatives, impact litigation coalitions, policy papers, pilot programs, data analysis, bringing in formerly incarcerated people and reform movement leaders, and strengthening curricular criminal offerings within Berkeley Law as well as to the broader university and the public.

Having seen a frequent disconnect between academia and the “real world,” Boudin hopes to bridge that gap in his new role at Berkeley Law School. Noting that academic research, while critically important, is often conducted by people who haven’t practiced law, he aims to engage students in pragmatic work that supports empirical research, statistical analysis, and policy oversight.

The new department Boudin will be overseeing “will be a research and advocacy hub to boost Berkeley Law’s public mission in the criminal justice arena,” said the University in a statement. “It will help foster research collaboration among faculty members and others, enhance law students’ training and practice opportunities, and strengthen connections between the university and the outside world.”