This year has been exceedingly challenging for students in California owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. School closures and financial hardships have created a climate of despair for millions of young people. Mental health services are needed now more than ever in order to prevent school suspensions and expulsions. Mental illness often plays a role in…
Continue reading ›Articles Posted in juvenile defense
With the adjournment of the annual state legislative session, we thought we’d share with you some of the bills that made it to the governor’s desk. We would also like to focus on a significant change to juvenile justice in California. Even though state lawmakers had to contend with conflicts relating to COVID-19, some interesting…
Continue reading ›At The Law Offices of Katie Walsh, we hope that everyone had a peaceful holiday season, and we would like to wish you a happy New Year. We felt it prudent to use the first post of 2020 to discuss some of the new legislation that went into effect this year, particularly laws that impact…
Continue reading ›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…
Continue reading ›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…
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