Recently, the Department of Juvenile Facilities (formerly known as the California Youth Authority) claimed to be in 85% compliance with the consent decree under the Farrell litigation.  This percentage cultivates a skewed perception of the state youth correctional facility’s progress towards reforming into a rehabilitative environment.  In April 2010, CJCJ’s Executive Dire

In 1980, before California and the United States embarked on a massive “War on Drugs” to arrest and imprison rising tens of thousands of drug users, a total of 1,480 residents died from overdoses or chronic abuse of illicit drugs. That constituted 7.7% of the state’s death toll from all external causes (that is, accidents, suicides, murders, and violent deaths of undetermined intent).

The “Blueprint for Change” report released by The National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice in 2007 highlights the need to address mental health treatment from a unified approach that includes both the juvenile justice system and mental health agencies.

In January 2010, the Campbell Collaboration published a report titled “Formal System Processing of Juveniles: Effects on Delinquency.” This report offers an analysis of the effects of formal processing of juveniles.

The recent report titled “Proposition 63: Is the Mental Health Act Reaching California’s Transitional Age Foster Youth?” from Children’s Advocacy Institute estimates that about 4,000 California youth age out of the foster care system annually.

The January 2010 special report from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) titled “The Extravagance of Imprisonment Revisited” analyzes the cost effectiveness of alternative sentencing nationwide, highlighting California, Texas, New York, and Florida.

The recent decision by the three judge panel in the Coleman/Plata case should be applauded as a short but positive step forward in forcing some degree of sanity upon the broken California prison system.  Unfortunately, the fact that a panel of Federal judges was forced to step in and force the state to make long overdue policy decisions is simply another poignant reminder of ou

Just released Criminal Justice Statistics Center 2008 crime numbers and Center for Health Statistics 2007 death figures deal a double whammy to three decades of California’s criminal justice failure. But first, the ironies.

Last month, CJCJ released a detailed study documenting the feasibility, benefits, and cost savings of closing California’s juvenile prison system and transferring its dwindling roster of inmates to county detention facilities.

For the past 20 years the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice has critically examined the control exercised by special interests group over California’s prison policy – especially the state’s prison guards union.   With their ability to spend millions of dollars to defeat political enemies, the guards union has achieved unprecedented success in promoting their agenda and resisting r