Blog Apr 7, 2010
CJCJ Supports SB 399
Senate Bill 399 is the California Fair Sentencing for Youth Act introduced by Senator Leland Yee. Current laws allow youth as young as 14 to be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP). The United States and Somalia are the only countries that allow children under the age of 18 to serve this harsh sentence; a sentence that provides no chance of rehabilitation and is a one-way ticket to death inside prison walls. SB 399 allows youths sentenced to LWOP the chance to contest…
Blog Apr 3, 2010
CJCJ Opposes AB 2141
Congratulations to Patti Lee and Jeff Adachi of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office for their tireless effort in defeating AB 2141. Patti Lee served as the lead opposition by organizing CJCJ, Youth Law Center, and the Commonwealth Juvenile Justice Program along with the Public Defenders’ Offices from 5 counties, including San Francisco and Alameda to back her in this fight against the bill. Without Patti Lee and Jeff Adachi’s opposition and perseverance in defeating this bill, more youth…
Daniel Macallair, MPA, Executive Director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, article titled “Wasting Tax Dollars: Public Relations and the California Youth Corrections System ” was recently featured in the California Progress Report. Mr. Macallair discusses that despite the class action law suit (Farrell v Cate) against the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), the state is not in full compliance with reforming the State’s youth correctional facilities. Further, the article exposes…
Blog Mar 25, 2010
An Epidemic of Abuse Inside Juvenile Institutions
At the close of my last blog (“More Abuse in Youth Prisons”) I suggested doing a simple search on the Internet and type in words like “abuse in juvenile institutions” and select some states at random. I said at the time that I would continue my search. And so I did. And what I found was way beyond what I expected. I don’t often like to use the word “epidemic” since it is so value-loaded and defies precise definition. One definition from Webster’s includes “widespread growth” and so I…
Blog Mar 19, 2010
Is California Failing its Youth?
The recent report titled “Proposition 63: Is the Mental Health Act Reaching California’s Transitional Age Foster Youth? ” from Children’s Advocacy Institute estimates that about 4,000 California youth age out of the foster care system annually. Proposition 63 provides services to Transition Age Youth (TAY) and Transition Age Foster Youth (TAFY). The report indicates that California is failing to provide services to these youth, with most counties receiving a grade “F”. Once a youth enters the…