Daniel Macallair, Executive Director of CJCJ, presented to the Assembly Public Safety Committee on October 28, 2009. His presentation focused on marijuana arrest rates including demographic trends, imprisonment rates, and disparities between arrest rates within California counties. CJCJ’s recently released report, ” View Mr. Macallair’s testimony to the State Assembly by clicking on his image or view the full informational hearing on Marijuana Legislation below. Part 1 of 3 …
Historic Hearing on Marijuana Legalization in the California Legislature Drug War Chronicle, October 30, 2009
Oct 12, 2009
Youth Prison Model Sets High Bar
Youth Prison Model Sets High Bar Wall Street Journal, October 12, 2009
Blog Oct 12, 2009
Kids Die all but invisibly
I thought that after studying and writing about juvenile justice for more than 30 years nothing would shock me, that I had seen and heard everything. I was wrong. The title of a recent story in the Los Angeles Times gives a hint to what it is about: “Flawed county system lets kids die invisibly.” The story begins with the death of 17-year-old Miguel Padilla, who had run away from a “licensed group home” (Leroy Haynes Center in La Verne, CA) in April 2008. He didn’t get very far. “Unknown…
Marijuana Arrests and California’s Drug War
Blog Sep 24, 2009
Dropping Out and Crime
It has become a truism that there is a close connection between school failure and juvenile crime, as demonstrated by literally hundreds of studies over the past 100 years. As if to remind us once again, here comes yet another study, this one by the California Dropout Research Project at UC Santa Barbara. As reported in today’s Los Angeles Times , dropping out of school costs the state $1.1 billion each year and if we decreased the number of dropouts by half it would save $550 million per…
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Sep 8, 2009
Daniel Macallair: Federal Courts to the Rescue: Fixing California’s Broken Prison System
Read Executive Director Daniel Macallairs piece in BeyondChron on Federal Courts to the Rescue: Fixing California’s Broken Prison System
CJCJ is now accepting applications for volunteers and interns in the following departments: Supportive Living Program Juvenile Justice Services Sentencing Service Program Development Agency Operations If you are interested in volunteering your time under any of these divisions, please review the Thank you and good luck.
Sep 7, 2009
The racism of marijuana prohibition
The racism of marijuana prohibition Los Angeles Times, September 7, 2009
Blog Sep 2, 2009
The end of an era?
A story in the Los Angeles Times caught my eye. The title tells most of the story: “California to close its largest juvenile prison .” The institution is the Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino. They will convert it to an adult prison and eventually transfer the young offenders to other programs in the state, mostly in county facilities closer to their families. Stark has been part of what most experts consider one of the “dinosaurs” of juvenile institutions, the California…
A Taxpayers Guide to the California Death Penalty