Coming into contact with the juvenile justice system can have a lasting impact on a person’s life. Once arrested and placed into a detention center, the likelihood of it occurring again exponentially increases. In most cases, young people who get into trouble with the law are better served by alternatives to incarceration. Reducing recidivism among…
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In May, we wrote about the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco rejecting Solano County’s challenge to Senate Bill 1391. At the time, we pointed out that California counties would likely continue to take issue with this controversial piece of legislation. For those who don’t know, SB 1391 bars prosecutors from trying 14-…
Continue reading ›In 1996, the California Division of Juvenile Justice, the state’s youth correctional system, housed over 10,000 children and young adults (ages 12 to 25), according to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Today, we see a very different picture of juvenile justice in the Golden State. Thanks to several criminal justice reforms and the…
Continue reading ›At The Law Offices of Katie Walsh, we are following Senate Bill 1391 developments closely. Some of our readers may remember that SB 1391 bars prosecutors from filing motions to transfer youths under 16 to adult court. In a previous post, we wrote about how some district attorneys believe the legislation is unconstitutional. Solano County…
Continue reading ›California Governor Gavin Newsom has big plans for the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice. Earlier this year, we shared that Gov. Newsom is proposing transferring control of the division away from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Soon, the California Health and Human Services Agency might be overseeing California’s young offenders. The move is part…
Continue reading ›The new year brought a new California governor, Gavin Newsom, and with him a plan to move the Division of Juvenile Justice to the state’s Health and Human Services Agency. Transitioning juvenile justice away from the corrections departments may result in significant changes for the better, but only time will tell. This Governor’s announcement came…
Continue reading ›The National Juvenile Defender Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU) are two of several organizations taking issue with a blanket order by Judith Clark, presiding judge of Riverside’s Juvenile Court, The Los Angeles Time reports. The Riverside County judge is restricting youth in juvenile delinquency proceedings from engaging in one-on-one…
Continue reading ›Governor Jerry Brown signed two measures over the weekend relevant to juvenile justice in California, Senate Bill 439 and Senate Bill 1391. You may remember that we have covered both pieces of legislation at length in the last year; SB 1391 we wrote about as recently as last week when it was still uncertain that…
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