Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr., (born January 14, 1957) is an American politician currently serving in the California State Assembly. He is a Democrat representing the 59th Assembly District, which encompasses portions of South Central Los Angeles, the neighborhoods of Florence-Graham and Walnut Park, and a part of Huntington Park.
Jones-Sawyer is a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus, and served as Chair from 2015-2016. Before being elected to the Assembly in 2012, he was Assistant Deputy Mayor for the City of Los Angeles. Jones-Sawyer terms out of the Assembly in December 2024. Jones-Sawyer announced in February 2023 that he is running for the City of Los Angeles Council District 10 seat.
Members of the Jones-Sawyer family were early pioneers in the civil rights movement. His uncle, Jefferson Thomas, was one of the "Little Rock Nine" high school students.
Early life and education
Jones-Sawyer earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California and has been an active member of the Alumni Association and past President of the Black Alumni Association; he also completed the prestigious Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government's Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government.
Early career
Jones-Sawyer's history of public service includes serving as Director of Asset Management for the City of Los Angeles, Assistant Deputy Mayor for the City of Los Angeles, Chair of the Los Angeles County Small Business Commission, Vice President of SEIU's (Local 721) Los Angeles Professional Managers Association, and statewide Secretary of the California Democratic Party.
While working for the City of Los Angeles, Jones-Sawyer helped transform the city's complicated and complex permit development bureaucratic system into a more "customer-friendly" agency that expedited the processing of many huge developments, including the building of the Magic Johnson Theater (now the Rave) in Baldwin Hills) and the Staples Center Arena.
Legislative career
Jones-Sawyer has authored or co-authored legislation including: AB 672 that provides re-entry assistance - like housing and job training - for persons that have been wrongfully convicted and consequently released from state prison; AB 266 that provides proper regulatory oversight of the cultivation, manufacture, transportation, storage distribution and sale of medical marijuana; and AB1012 that prohibits school districts from assigning any student to a course period without educational content, a.k.a., Fake Classes bills.
In the Legislature, Jones-Sawyer is Chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee and serves on the following standing committees: Higher Education Committee, Government Organization Committee, and the Agriculture Committee. He is Chair of the Select Committee on Urban Planning and Land Use in Underserved Communities, and Co-Chair of the Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color.
Jones-Sawyer recognized the devastation the School-to-Prison-Pipeline posed for underserved communities like those in his district, which has high incarceration rates for African Americans and Latinos in particular. That is why as Chair of the Public Safety subcommittee, he led the way to secure nearly $100 million for recidivism reduction grants. For the first time since the great recession, millions of dollars in grants were made available to service providers to help turn-around the lives of the formally incarcerated so that they could become productive residents in their communities. His subcommittee also has the enormous responsibility of overseeing the entire budget for the state's court system. Partnering with the Chief Justice and working with judges throughout the state, he helped to restored over $300 million to the court system after a decade of devastating budget cuts.
Jones-Sawyer also served as Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus from 2014-2016.
In 2021, Jones-Sawyer sought to change the statewide entry requirements for police officers with AB89, which would've required at least a bachelor's degree or at least 25 years of age before entering a police academy. He argued that research suggested that people's brains don't fully mature until they're at least 25 years old. This argument has been used as a basis for a law in 2017, allowing those under 26 years old with lengthy prison sentences to pursue a special parole program.