Andria Blackmon
O.H. Close Youth Correctional Facility
A rare commentary on the juvenile prison system, from someone’s who spent time in the system, this KQED Perspective comes from Joaquin DiazDeLeon, a member of San Francisco’s Reentry Council and the Ella Baker Center’s Books Not Bars program.
Forget CARMAGEDDON. Justice in San Francisco is set to come a shuddering standstill after the Superior Court issued pink slips to more than 40% of its staff. San Francisco will shutter 25 of its 63 courtrooms — almost all in the civil division — as officials scramble to bridge a $13.75 million budget shortfall caused by state cuts that eliminated $350 million from courts throughout California.
In other budget fallout news, Marin County Superior Court abandoned its controversial plan to corral juveniles, and their attorneys, in glass enclosures during court appearances. The county will instead permanently close its only juvenile court facility and, come September, begin hearing juvenile cases at the main courthouse. Officials cited mounting fiscal woes and ongoing concerns about the safety of the existing court facility at juvenile hall.
In the event any of our courthouses actually remain open for business, municipal and transit police authorities could soon find themselves in the dock over their repeated refusal to release the identity of officers under investigation. With the SFPD and BART police continuing to withhold the names and disciplinary records of officers involved in a recent string of shootings and civilian deaths, the Northern California chapter of the ACLU is considering legal action to obtain the information under government accountability and public access laws.
Stumbling from the less-than-sublime to the just-plain-ridiculous, California corrections officials ripped a page straight from Margaret Thatcher’s political playbook in seeking to shift the spotlight from the ongoing hunger strike at five state prisons by characterizing the protest as the work of prison gangs. The inmates are demanding changes in prison practices and improved living conditions.
Two new reports out this week bring troubling news from Los Angeles County’s beleaguered juvenile halls. According to the Crime Report, Los Angeles is not taking court-ordered reforms serious enough to accomplish them by a Fall 2011 deadline. The county has been under federal and state supervision since 2008, when regulators discovered abusive and unprofessional conditions in the juvenile halls. Since then, we’ve seen regular reports of misconduct emerge from LA:
George G.
Via the San Jose Mercury News, a story about a tragic death stemming from what appears to have started as a teenager stealing liquor at 57-year-old Dong Suk Kang’s Oakland store:
The confrontation started after Kang saw the youth take two bottles of Grey Goose vodka, authorities said.
When Kang tried to stop the boy, a violent pushing-and-shoving match began, and the boy threatened to do the man harm, Officer Angelica Mendoza said. At one point the boy slammed Kang against a counter, Mendoza said. Kang’s wife of two years, In Cha Ho, said she saw the boy hit her husband in the face.
Eventually, the boy fled the store. Kang told his wife to call police and got in his car to follow the teen. A few blocks away Kang lost consciousness, and his car swerved to a stop against a curb. He died at Highland Hospital.
The teenage boy has been charged with “felony murder” under a state law that says an person who commits a crime is criminally responsible for any deaths that occur during the crime–whether or not they ever intended for that person to die.
Still Burning
The new magazine, Public Intellectual, has dedicated its inaugural issue to matters of policing and surveillance, and is well worth taking a look at. One piece in particular that might be of interest to Informant readers is by Angela Irvine, who helped run an investigation into experiences of LGBT youth in the criminal justice system for the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Perhaps the most shocking piece of her piece, which draws on a survey of 2,200 youth nationwide, comes near the middle:
An editorial in the Bakersfield Californian has a non-traditional take on the debate over closing California’s youth prison system, the Division of Juvenile Justice. In an era where the governor and Republican members of the legislature are in deadlock over budget cuts and tax hikes (with Governor Jerry Brown even threatening to cut services in Republican districts, so they can see what small government feels like), the paper, which is located in Kern County, makes an interesting point:
We love to talk about how we’re overtaxed and overgoverned, and how self-reliance is an underappreciated characteristic in both individuals and societies. Evidence for the merits of those arguments is abundant enough.
Not when it comes to juvenile justice, however. In fact, as a recent snapshot reveals, Kern County is on the state government dole like few others.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed realignment of the state’s juvenile prison system, which attempted to reduce state spending by shifting the burden of incarcerating and treating violent youthful offenders to county-run programs, has shed light on harsh disparities among counties. Some counties fund their juvenile justice systems almost completely; others rely tremendously on the state.
Chief Probation Officer David Muhammad
This morning, KALW’s Your Call had a great show about the future of juvenile justice, featuring reformer-turned-probation-chief David Muhammad, recently hired to take over operations in Alameda County and James Bell of the W. Haywood Burns Institute. Owen Li of the Ella Baker Center’s Books Not Bars called in as well. Complete audio is above, but here are some highlights:
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:
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