This month CJCJ began providing mentoring services to youth in detention, and staff visited innovative post-Realignment programs in San Francisco and published an op-ed on SB 260.
Local model practices exist throughout the nation and there is substantial empirical research available to interested parties who seek to re-think their approach to juvenile and criminal justice. Justice leaders do not need to reinvent the wheel, but learn from others who have boldly risked a different approach within their local jurisdiction.
A new original series, Orange is the New Black, has received attention because the show provides a powerful look at our criminal justice system and life in prison. Hopefully this can facilitate a larger conversation about the state of American criminal justice.
More than 2,500 Californians are serving life sentences in prison for crimes they committed when they were younger than 18. At San Quentin, it is all too common to come across young men serving 35 or 40 years-to-life for crimes they committed before they were old enough to drive — meaning they would be in their 50s before their first parole hearings.
San Francisco’s unique reentry pod in Jail #2 serves men returning from state prison, prior to and during their release into the community.