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 Help Us Close California's Youth Prisons
Books Not Bars fights to redirect California's resources away from youth incarceration and towards youth opportunities. We engage in grassroots campaigns using media advocacy, policy advocacy, grassroots organizing, and alliance building.
Currently, we are working to close California's abusive, expensive youth prisons and replace them with rehabilitation centers and community-based programs.
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For the first time, Californians overwhelming rejected a "tough on crime" initiative, Proposition 6. In the same mold as Prop 21 and Three Strikes, George Runner thought he could scare Californians into throwing billions more into failed prison policies. We proved him wrong: Prop 6 didn't win a single county -- and in most places lost by a wide margin.
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Sponorsed by Senator Leland Yee, with critical input from Families for Books Not Bars, the Family Communication Act (SB 1250) will require the Division of Juvenile Justice to:
- Notify parents within 24 hours of a youth's suicide attempt or other medical emergency;
- Translate youths' rights documents into Spanish and other languages and provide these materials to parents;
- Allow youth to communicate in their native language to family, clergy, or counsel;
- Provide writing materials to youth to encourage correspondence with family and clergy;
- Notify youth 30 days prior to a scheduled parole consideration hearing, and give youth the right to inform parents of the hearing.
Opening with words from Senator Leland Yee and ending with a performance dramatizing the effects of incarceration on families, we showed our commitment to justice for all of California's families. We followed the event by visiting with legislators to ask them to support the Family Communication and Rehabilitation Act and the Keeping Families Whole Act. Media from three languages covered the event. Take a look at a few pictures.
 Photo: Nina Frank
California's youth prison system will shut down prisons for the first time in 4 years! The Division of Juvenile Justice announced at the very start of 2008 that El Paso de Robles and Dewitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facilities will close by July 31 this year.
Located in Paso Robles, El Paso de Robles is one of the most remote of the state's eight youth prisons, and holds about 150 young men. This facility recently made headlines for its accidental use of overly potent tear gas on the youth. Dewitt Nelson, one of three Stockton youth prisons, holds 260 youth. All of the youth will be transferred to other DJJ prisons -- and we'll work to make sure they're close to their families in the process.
Authored by our ally and friend, Assemblymember Curren Price, the Family Connection & Young Offender Rehabilitation Act will:
- Make it part of the purpose of Division of Juvenile Justice to promote family ties and provide education
- Will require that every youth in a state DJJ facility be allowed four phone calls to family each month;
- Set up a toll-free visiting hotline for information and updates on visiting
- Require that young people be housed near their families whenever possible
The 2007 Books Not Bars Families Conference joined forces with "The Gathering for Justice," a national movement spearheaded by Harry Belafonte to bring an end to childhood incarceration. Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Ella Baker Center Executive Director Jakada Imani, and members of Families for Books Not Bars joined voices to call for real change in California's juvenile justice system.
When he submitted his budget early this year, the Governor proposed sending lower-need youth back to their home counties for rehabilitation, dropping the population of the youth prison system by more than half. Thousands of youth will now be served closer to their families, in county-run facilities. We applaud the Governor for this move, especially since it seems he's turning a new leaf. When we proposed the same solution last year, he vetoed it.
It's not often that you can get a glimpse of what it's like inside the youth prison system. After all, even parents of youth never get past the waiting room. But this summer, Books Not Bars received special permission to tour all of California's youth prison facilities. As we're doing it, we're talking to the youth inside and taking notes on what we see. Then, we're using the Ella Baker Center blog as a soapbox to tell the world about what's going on. Please take a moment to read about what it's like to be inside the Division of Juvenile Justice.
In the May revision of his budget, the Governor proposed closing the prison and moving the youth to other facilities. This is a major victory as it shows that the youth prison system is failing and should be closed entirely.
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