Last month, we covered Senate Bill 607, as it relates to juvenile justice in California. The bill – authored by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley – would have expanded a bill signed into law in 2014 banning the suspension of students in grades K-3 for acts of “disruption and defiance.” Sen. Skinner’s proposal had the expressed…
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…
Continue reading ›In April, we discussed Senate Bill 1391. If signed into law, SB 1391 would amend Proposition 57, repealing the authority of a district attorney to make a motion to transfer a minor from juvenile court to a court of criminal jurisdiction in a case in which a minor is alleged to have committed a specified…
Continue reading ›People who are charged with a crime have the right to stand trial, in a timely manner. Amendment VI of the U.S. Constitution – Rights of Accused in Criminal Prosecutions – states that: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the…
Continue reading ›The California Division of Juvenile Facilities (DJF) reports that 70% of youth paroled from its institutions were re-arrested within two years. Recidivism rates of that magnitude are a severe cause of concern for many juvenile justice advocates and lawmakers, such as Assemblymember Tony Thurmond (D-Richmond). In an attempt to mitigate the risk of re-offending, Assemblymember…
Continue reading ›Keeping young people away from the juvenile justice and adult criminal justice system is of the utmost importance. People who get into trouble with the law at a young age are at significant risk of having run-ins in the future. Young people – more often than not – do not understand that their choices can…
Continue reading ›Last summer, we discussed several bills being considered by the California State Senate, including Senate Bill 439 (SB-439). As is the case with most legislation we focus on, SB 439 centers on juvenile justice, explicitly keeping most youngsters under the age of 12 out of courtrooms and into alternative programs for discipline. SB 439 made…
Continue reading ›The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Northern California, San Diego, and the National Center for Youth Law are suing over the unfair practices used by the Riverside County Youth Accountability Team Program (YAT). According to the ACLU, YAT was created in 2001 to target at-risk youths for intervention. On the surface, such a…
Continue reading ›Just over a year ago we covered a subject that is of particular importance to adolescents caught in the juvenile justice system and their families, Senate Bill 190 (SB-190). At the time, the piece of legislation which, if passed, would prohibit the collection of fees in the juvenile-justice system across the state, was before the…
Continue reading ›The new California state budget allocates $4 million toward preventing the unnecessary arrests of foster children, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. The move from lawmakers came about after the newspaper exposed a severe issue regarding the handling foster kids who act up. Historically, when foster children staying in one of the many California shelters caused…
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