Max Whittaker | Prime
Editorial: Gov. Newsom’s impulse on juvenile justice good, but state needs real reform
Originally posted in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The San Francisco Chronicle quotes CJCJ Executive Director Daniel Macallair and endorses CJCJ’s long-standing vision for California’s juvenile justice system, in response to Governor Newsom’s proposed reform to the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ).
In the proposed budget for fiscal year 2019 – 20, Governor Newsom asks state lawmakers to move DJJ from under the umbrella of the California Department of Corrections, to the Health and Human Services Agency.
From the article:
simply putting a different agency in charge of the youth prisons isn’t likely to solve any of these problems.
“It won’t change the culture or the reality of daily life in those institutions,” said Daniel Macallair, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco.
Real reform will require the state to rethink the state youth prison system.
“Virtually every county in California has surplus space in its county juvenile hall facility right now,” Macallair said. “There’s no need to keep a dysfunctional state system that’s no longer working.”
With such a small population in the state system, it’s wholly possible for the state to send the youths home to their county detention facilities for incarceration and treatment.
Read the full article on the San Francisco Chronicle »
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