CJCJ March 2023 Newsletter: From Recognition at City Hall in San Francisco, CA, to Sacramento and the Capitol

From our community programs in San Francisco, to City Hall for a certificate of recognition, to Sacramento for juvenile justice advocacy, and the sixth cohort for our Next Generation Fellowship kicking off at the Capitol, CJCJ has been busy this past month! We hope you enjoy learning about some of our work in our March newsletter. 

CJCJ’s Cameo House program recognized through San Francisco Women’s Housing Coalition’s Board of Supervisors Certificate of Honor

San Francisco’s Women’s Housing Coalition, of which CJCJ’s Cameo House is a founding member, is honored at the Board of Supervisors’ International Women’s History Month meeting.

Did you know CJCJ is a proud founding member of the San Francisco Women’s Housing Coalition (SFWHC)? Founded in 2020, our Cameo House Program Director Rebecca Jackson is also the current co-chair. To celebrate International Women’s History Month on March 9^th, 2023, the San Francisco Women’s Housing Coalition received a Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in recognition of their urgent work in support of some of our cities most vulnerable women. We were proud to be there to receive the certificate along with other founding members from organizations such as Mary Elizabeth Inn, Community Forward, the Domestic Violence Consortium, Taxpayers for Public Safety, and San Francisco SafeHouse. Together the member agencies of the Women’s Housing Coalition have over 200 years of experience serving women in SF.

Upon seeing many women’s decades-old services that had served the city dissolve, the coalition formed in 2020. In the last decade San Francisco has lost programs such as women’s specific detoxes and supportive services that were vital to the recovery and safety of unhoused women.

Women experience homelessness differently than their male counterparts. Their experiences of violence are different, and their survival strategies and how they participate in the street economy are different. This is especially true for women of trans experience and the gender non-conforming folks. This means that their supportive services and housing options have to be mindful of and address the different kinds of trauma that they face. SFWHC was started with these important conversations and needs in mind.

We at CJCJ and Cameo House are so proud to be founding members of this important coalition. We will continue this critical work on the ground within our program and the SF community at large to ensure that women are prioritized and that their needs are met in a safe and dignified manner. Thank you to the SF Board of Superiors, specifically Supervisor Peskin for recognizing us as a coalition. Thank you also to all of the incredible work being done by our coalition members. We are honored to work alongside you.


Click here to learn more about Cameo House and their programming

California’s Board of State and Community Corrections statewide regulations revisions for county juvenile justice facilities.

Currently California’s Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) is revising the Title 15 and 24 regulations, which set critical minimum standards for county juvenile facilities. These standards cover everything from family visits and solitary confinement to education and recreation and are revised every two years. The BSCC has created an executive steering committee (ESC) to oversee this revision process. Eventually the ESC will pass along revision recommendations to the BSCC’s 13-person leadership board for approval. Recently their ESC had a meeting in Sacramento to go over these regulations, CJCJ was in the audience along with a room full of organizers, activists, and concerned community members following along.

CJCJ’s policy team was there to support the organizing for attendance and participation on the ground and online. We were encouraged to see over 50 community members come out to have their voices heard and advocate for some of our state’s most vulnerable youth, many of advocates were youth who had been previously held in juvenile facilities themselves.

Public comment overwhelmingly supported a ban on chemical/​pepper spray being used against youth who are in custody. Many youth shared powerful testimonies of their own experiences detained as a young person by the state, while others shared their concerns regarding youth mistreatment in various counties such as Alameda and Riverside. Los Angeles County, which was a focus of conversation recently fired its Chief of Probation due to numerous ongoing documented concerns regarding the treatment and abuse of youth in their juvenile halls. State regulators have even gone as far as to threaten to shut down the troubled juvenile halls due to these conditions. Concerns and discussions around LA County’s troubling conditions for youth in their care will undoubtedly continue into future ESC meetings.

Since the BSCC’s inception CJCJ has led monitoring and organizing efforts surrounding this important state agency. We will continue this important work to uplift the concerns of juvenile justice advocates, formerly incarcerated youth, and their families across the state about conditions for our state’s most vulnerable youth.

Want to get involved? Contact us here to be added to our mailing list about BSCC related concerns and organizing efforts.

CJCJ and MILPA kick off a leadership development and policy advocacy training for formerly incarcerated and system-impacted individuals.

The Next Generation Fellowship (NGF) is leadership development and policy advocacy fellowship and training for emerging leaders across California who are formerly incarcerated and/​or have experienced another form of involvement in the justice system. The fellowship is co-facilitated by CJCJ and MILPA (Motivating Individual Leadership for Public Advancement) and focuses on advancing racial justice, cultural healing, and ending mass incarceration by promoting healthy, safe communities.

We are excited to share that we started our sixth NGF cohort this past March in Sacramento, CA! Fellows from across the state came together to build relations and learn about how NGF empowers fellows to transform community justice through their lived experience. Our first session included introductions between fellows and facilitators, as well as intention setting for our fellows’ path forward this year. We also paid a visit to the Capitol for a critical discussion on moving from ​“power over to power with” and what that looks like.

For too long laws and policies have been imposed and used against disenfranchised communities to disempower and often incarcerate them. At NGF we offer our fellows a space to build people power within and with each other. We also encourage them to harness that power to create effective change in one’s community and across the state. We can’t wait to share more about our new fellows and their incredible ideas and stories! They are the change we need for better futures ourselves and generations to come.

A huge and humble thank you to our fellows and our co-facilitators at MILPA for these powerful two days! Together we are creating a unique leadership pathway for formerly incarcerated and justice-involved individuals in the movement to end mass incarceration. Want so check out a video of our NGF fellows and facilitators? If so, click here.

Learn more about the Next Generation Fellowship