Blog Jan 26, 2012
Momentum growing for juvenile realignment
Consensus is growing in the Capitol that California’s youth correctional facilities need to be closed, with funding and supervision responsibilities realigned to the counties. Building on Past Policy Recommendations: In 2008 the Little Hoover Commission recommended that the state’s Division of Juvenile Facilities (DJF) close its doors and for California to move towards a county-based juvenile system. In early 2011, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) concluded , “Less than 1…
Blog Jan 24, 2012
Wall Street is without a doubt a gang
A new report by two noted experts on corporate crime reinforces my contention in the previously posted four part series called “Is Wall Street a Gang?” The report is “White Collar Criminology and the Occupy Wall Street Movement” co-authored by Henry Pontell and William Black. It has just been published in the latest issue of The Criminologist , the newsletter of the American Society of Criminology. Pontell and Black argue that the frauds committed by some of the largest financial…
Blog Jan 20, 2012
AB 12: more placement options for juvenile courts
Gov. Brown’s proposal to phase-out DJF entirely starting with no new commitments as of January 1, 2013, has many California counties worried about what to do with their most high risk youth, especially the few counties whose juvenile facilities are nearing capacity. The perceived lack of alternatives has many counties’ prosecutors thinking their only option will be to directly transfer this population to adult court. However, there are in fact many local options for handling youth that would…
Blog Jan 17, 2012
Developing Leaders [guest video blog]
CJCJ’s guest video blog by Will Roy, discusses challenges to re-entry from the state’s youth correctional facilities and what he thinks should be the way forward for juvenile justice in California. Will Roy is currently a psychology student at the City College of San Francisco. He was made a ward of the California Youth Authority (now the Division of Juvenile Facilities) in 1997, as a first time offender at the age of 15, and remained a ward until 2003. During his six year CYA…
Since 2007, San Bernardino County’s Probation Department has made strategic, bold changes in order to align their systems with modern and effective best practices for the rehabilitation and reentry of youth offenders. Prior to 2007, San Bernardino had a history of state-dependency for their youthful offender population and was the subject of a lawsuit for facility conditions and practices. Over the last four years, the county has demonstrated admirable leadership and innovation in utilizing…