Kerry Jackson

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Kerry Jackson is an independent journalist and opinion writer with extensive experience covering politics and public policy. Currently a fellow with the Center for California Reform at the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), Kerry writes weekly op-eds and blog posts on statewide issues, and occasional books and policy papers. He is the author of Living in Fear in California, a book that explores well-meaning changes to California’s public safety laws enacted in recent years that have undermined safe communities, and offers reforms that strike a balance between the state’s obligation to crime victims and the rights of the accused and convicted. In 2017, he wrote Unaffordable: How Government Made California’s Housing Shortage a Crisis and How Free Market Ideas Can Restore Affordability and Supply, an issue brief on California’s housing crisis which won bipartisan praise. His 2018 brief on poverty in California, Good Intentions: How California’s Anti-Poverty Programs Aren’t Delivering and How the Private Sector Can Lift More People Out of Poverty, garnered national attention for his Los Angeles Times op-ed asking, “Why is liberal California the poverty capital of America?” Jackson is a leading commentator on California’s growing homeless crisis. In 2019, he co-authored (with Dr. Wayne Winegarden) a brief on San Francisco’s homeless crisis, which was presented to Mayor London Breed’s administration. His commentaries have been published in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, CALmatters, City Journal, the Daily Caller, the New York Observer, Orange County Register, Bakersfield Californian, San Francisco Examiner, Fresno Bee, Ventura County Star, Forbes, and Fox and Hounds Daily, among others. He regularly appears on radio and television programs commenting on the problems affecting California. Jackson has been a past guest on National Public Radio, One America News Network, Newsmax TV, and “The Dr. Drew Show,” among others. Before coming to PRI, Jackson spent 18 years writing editorials on domestic and foreign policy for Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) and three years as the assistant director of public affairs for the American Legislative Exchange Council. He has written for the American Media Institute and Real Clear Investigations and edited “The Growth Manifesto” for the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. A graduate of Georgia State University, Kerry has also served as a public affairs consultant for the George Mason University School of Law and worked as a reporter and editor for local newspapers in the metro Atlanta and northern Virginia regions.