Shawn Thorpe
Michael Minor is chief deputy secretary of the Division of Juvenile Justice at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It’s his job to help shape the future for this department that’s potentially on the budget chopping block. KALW’s Holly Kernan spoke with Minor about what the role of the Division of Juvenile Justice.
Juvenile crime in California has been steadily declining for several decades,reaching an all-time low in 2010. What hasn’t changed much, however, is the disproportionate number of youth of color who are being incarcerated.
This is the focus of organizations like the W. Haywood Burns Institute. The San Francisco-based nonprofit has been working for years to help counties remake their juvenile justice systems so they’re equitable. It’s going to become more and more important as California begins to phase out its statewide youth prison system in favor of county alternatives.
It’s a controversial proposal from Governor Jerry Brown, and one that’s likely to be implemented by 2014. KALW News Director Holly Kernan sat down with Burns Institute Founder and Executive Director James Bell to talk about the closure of the Division of Juvenile Justice.
Andria Blackmon
O.H. Close Youth Correctional Facility is one of the few state youth prisons that remains open.
By Nicole Jones
The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco released a report this week that shows California counties have the capacity to implement Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to eliminate the state’s youth prison system.
Brown announced his plans in January to eventually fade out the Division of Juvenile Justice system by 2014. The proposal would have counties share $10 million to develop local alternatives to housing youth in state facilities. But it’s raised some concerns from counties and law enforcement, saying they lack adequate secure juvenile placement facilities for high-risk youth offenders the DiJJ currently serves.
Carrie McGann
Almost a year after seemingly giving up on the idea, Governor Jerry Brown again announced that he’ll close the Division of Juvenile Justice, California’s youth prison system. The DJJ, known as the California Youth Authority (CYA) until a lawsuit prompted a system overhaul and inspired a corresponding name change, is slated for gradual shutdown starting this year, according to Brown’s proposed budget.
Rachael Towne
The previous year was a huge one for criminal justice in California, and 2012 promises to be just as dramatic. This year we’ll see the continued fallout of California’s prison overcrowding crisis, which coupled with the state’s financial crisis, is opening the doors to reforms never thought possible in our state. Here are three big issues to watch this coming year.
Chief Probation Officer David Muhammad
States like New York and California are making moves to shutter their state juvenile detention facilities–mostly because they’re incredibly costly, reports USA Today. In California, Governor Jerry Brown nixed his play to completely close the Division of Juvenile Justice (formerly the California Youth Authority) following backlash from the counties (who will absorb this population in their juvenile halls). But that doesn’t mean operations in the DJJ will continue as usual–and some believe that the state juvenile system is still destined for shutdown. As part of his revised “realignment” plan, Brown is giving counties an option: keep kids at the county level and get state money, or pay the state to lock up the most serious youth offenders.
Alameda County’s new Chief of Probation David Muhammad told reporter Martha Moore that kids from that county will be pulled from DJJ facilities:
Juvies
Juvenile offenders at EastLake (Central) Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles, from the film, “Juvies.”
A piece in California Watch today runs down the reasoning behind Governor Jerry Brown backing off a proposal to shut down the Division of Juvenile Justice, California’s system of youth prisons. Part of the issue with closing the DJJ, according to many of those who work in and around the system, is that the patchwork of 58 county probation departments that oversee juvenile offenders on a local level is a “Wild West.” The charge is that while some counties run exemplary juvenile halls and probation systems, others do not, and there’s no dependable system for making the struggling ones better. CalWatch reporter Louis Freedberg quotes Barry Krisberg, director of the Earl Warren Institute at the UC Berkeley Law School, who says there is basically no regulation of local juvenile halls:
The NPR Argo Network is a collection of websites by NPR member stations committed to strengthening local journalism
Learn More...
Humanosphere reports on global health and the fight against poverty from KPLU in Seattle
The Empire Reports on city and state politics from WNYC in New York
The Informant reports on cops, courts and communities from KALW in Oakland
Multi-American reports on immigration and cultural fusion from KPCC in Southern California
On Campus reports on higher education from MPR in Minnesota
Ecotrope reports on nature and community from OPB in Oregon
The Key reports on local music from WXPN in Philadelphia
CommonHealth reports on health, medicine and healthcare reform from WBUR in Boston
Argo MindShift reports on technology and education from KQED in San Francisco
Home Post reports on the military from KPBS in San Diego
DCentric reports on race and class from WAMU in Washington, D.C.
