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CJCJ’s Lizzie Buchen highlights the negative impact mandatory minimums would have on California’s youth in the San Jose Mercury News.

With the death of former State Senator John Vasconcellos on May 29, the California criminal justice reform community lost one of its great champions. Vasco, as he was affectionately known, was one of those rare elected officials whose commitment to justice never wavered. 

Lizzie Buchen, CJCJ’s Communications and Policy Analyst, discusses the negative impact mandatory minimums would have on California’s juvenile justice system in a recent Juvenile Justice Information Exchange Op-ed.

School and college campuses account for 5 out of every 10,000 shootings in the United States, but occupy 90% of our discussion of gun violence.

SB 838 would establish the first mandatory minimum sentences in California’s juvenile justice system. These sentences are punitive, reject the notion of rehabilitation, and do not prevent crime. Help us stop this bill from becoming law!