Overview Cameo House Community Options for Youth (COY) Detention Diversion Advocacy Program (DDAP) Expert Witness, Court Navigation, & Sentencing Mitigation Services Juvenile Collaborative Reentry Unit (JCRU) No Violence Alliance (NoVA) Overview Technical Assistance California Sentencing Institute Next Generation Fellowship Legislation Transparency & Accountability

CJCJ’s Mike Males discusses the mistreatment and criminalization of Black girls in the juvenile justice system with WPFW Crossroads host, Roach Brown.

I think theres definitely discrimination within the policing system because poorer populations are policed more. Women are policed in domestic settings more than men are, so you’re going to get more arrests of both women and girls for lower level offenses. And I think theres harsher treatment for women for lower level offenses.

I think there’s this image that women and girls are not supposed to cause any trouble, and when they do, they’re terrible delinquents’ and they’re getting worse,’ and all these kinds of awful consequences follow. Girls are no supposed to commit crime, and so they’re subjected to harsher treatment for lower level offenses, especially status offenses … where you get arrested simply for doing something that would not be a crime if an adult did it.”— Mike Males

Related Links

San Francisco’s Disproportionate Arrest of African American Women Persists

Justice Policy Journal: Psychotropic Control of Women Prisoners:The Perpetuation of Abuse of Imprisoned Women

Justice Policy Journal: Empowerment Not Entrapment: Providing Opportunities for Incarcerated Women to Move Beyond Doing Time”