Last Thursday, Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cárdenas traveled to San Francisco to meet leading juvenile justice policy experts from Northern California at the San Francisco State University Downtown Campus . Councilman Cárdenas is running unopposed this November in a new Congressional district in Los Angeles and will be sworn into office in January 2013 as one of California’s newest members of Congress. Mr. Cárdenas was very explicit with the policy advocates that his number one issue…
Blog Jul 31, 2012
California’s myriad sentencing practices
Yesterday, CJCJ launched the California Sentencing Institute’s (CASI) new interface that allows for quicker, easier visual representations of California’s statewide sentencing practices. Immediately apparent upon visiting the site are the huge sentencing disparities among California’s 58 counties. Further exploration of the site indicates various interesting trends. For example, while Kings County is ranked at the top of every metric related to use of state prison, it is not the highest…
Blog Jul 26, 2012
Juvenile justice policy roundtable in San Francisco
Today CJCJ hosted a group of policy advocates, foundations, and LA City Councilman Tony Cárdenas for a roundtable discussion on state and federal juvenile justice reforms. Councilman Cárdenas has a strong record in juvenile justice policy with his passage of the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (Schiff-Cardenas Act) as a State Assemblyman in 2000 and his work on lifting the gang injunction in Los Angeles. The discussion focused on the intersection between efforts in Washington D.C. to…
In 2009, CJCJ launched its California Sentencing Institute (CASI) as the foundation for data and research driven commentary on the broader public safety dialogue. The interactive map reveals detailed crime and incarceration trends for California’s 58 counties, and it’s about to get better… CJCJ will launch a newly developed CASI early next week! The new map will feature interactive filters, county comparisons, geographic visualizations, and fully downloadable excel datasets. Access…
Blog Jul 19, 2012
National leaders in youth justice reform
The nation has come along way in juvenile justice reform. John Jay College in New York recently released a new report that details the various juvenile justice reform efforts undertaken by states in the last 30 years. Three major strategies for reform are identified and evaluated in terms of the long-term effectiveness of each. The three main strategies they identify are resolution , meaning limiting judicial options for out-of-home placements by closing facilities; reinvestment whereby…