We are a program of the W. Haywood Burns Institute that is committed to the empowerment of children, youth, families and communities by promoting the availability of effective, culturally appropriate interventions to detention and incarceration. CJNY identifies, promotes and helps expand the work and capacities of its community-based member organizations that serve children in trouble with the law. CJNY also works to develop and expand its network of 130+ members so that they can effectively influence public policy that adversely impacts youth of color. Our goal: Stop the Rail to Jail!
Center for Young Women's Development Mother's Bill of Rights
Santa Rosa Bus Coordinator needed for Get On The Bus
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:29
This year "Get On The Bus" will take more than 1500 children on 60 buses all around the state of California to visit their incarcerated parents. The program started 11 years ago with one bus, 9 families and 17 children going to Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, CA. In addition to running buses to all state women's prison for Mother's Day on Friday, May 7, 2010, we will also be operating in four different men's prisons: California Men's Colony on Saturday, June 12, 2010, Correctional Training Facility, Salinas Valley State Prison and California State Prison on Saturday, June 19, 2010.
Get On The Bus provides children and their guardians with free transportation and an unforgettable day, but also with personal support in preparing for a visit. Children and caregivers receive meals for the day, a t shirt, things to do on the way up to the trip, a 4 hour visit with their parent, ways to stay connected with their parent, a teddy bear and a letter from their parent and an unforgettable family photo.
We are currently seeking a bus coordinator and sponsoring agency for our bus departing from Santa Rosa going to California Men's Colony on June 12, 2010. Although this is months away the Get On the Bus Program takes advanced planning and support starting with our January 30th Training Day in LA. Your community has the very special opportunity to join our GOTB family and become part of the mission. We have several families in the Santa Rosa area that need your help. Please share this information with your networks today.
Please contact Tara Regan 617-869-4539,
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for more information.
More than 12% of youths in juvenile prisons are sexually abused while in custody there, according to a Justice Department study out Thursday, and the vast majority of cases involve female staff and boys under their supervision.
In the worst facilities surveyed — in Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina and Texas — more than 30% of youths reported they had been sexually victimized. The study, the first of its kind, shows a rate of sexual assault more than seven times higher than that indicated by a 2008 Justice Department report that collected sexual abuse claims to juvenile facility administrators. It is also higher than a similar study of adult prisons because of the "very high rate of staff sexual misconduct," said Allen Beck, who directed the survey for the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The survey of 9,198 youths ages 13 to 21 — all in custody by order of a juvenile court — included methods to eliminate interviews considered unreliable. The survey covered 195 facilities, at least one in each state. Approximately 26,550 juveniles — 91% of them boys — are held in more than 500 such facilities around the country.
The survey showed that 10.3% of youths reported the sexual contact was with staff, compared with 2.6% who reported sexual victimization by other youths. In nearly half the incidents with staff, youths reported having sexual contact as a result of force.
The study sets a wider definition of sexual contact than rape, Beck said. Nonetheless, "these are all things that in the outside world would be considered violent or, by definition in law, they are illegal," he said.
Budget cuts threaten gains made in 10 years January 3, 2010
By Matthew Hamilton /
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/ The New Star
In 1999, state corrections assumed control of Tallulah's infamous youth prison.
Reform advocates portrayed the privately run prison — beset by allegations of abuse from prison guards, squalid conditions and lack of educational and medical services — as the epitome of the state's poor record of rehabilitating young offenders.
In the course of the next 10 years, the Tallulah prison would close as a youth facility as part of a broader effort to overhaul juvenile justice in the state. Both administration officials and reform advocates acknowledge Louisiana has improved what was a failing juvenile justice system at the start of the decade, but budget shortfalls in the last years have raised doubts if or when the state can fulfill that progress in the next 10 years.
David Utter, the former director of the Juvenile Justice Project for Louisiana, conveyed the hope his fellow reform advocates felt in the first years after the turn of the millennium.
"There is, for the first time I can recall, a serious effort by many people to find ways to fix this broken system," Utter told the Associated Press in December 2001.
The comment came after an Orleans Parish Juvenile Judge first ruled that a Tallulah inmate should be released because he wasn't safe from the prison guards. Early that year, in his April 2001 State of the Judiciary Address, then- Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Pascal Calogero Jr. called on lawmakers to remake the system.
"We all know, intuitively and from research, that the abuse and neglect of children is a major contributing factor in the development of delinquency, and that delinquency is a major contributor to adult crime," Calogero said.
After reviewing Alex's appeal for bail, U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered Judge Real to reopen the bail hearings and make his decision based on "findings of fact." The new bail hearing is Jan. 6 at 10 a.m. in downtown L.A. Federal Court House.
To deny bail the government must prove by a "preponderance of evidence" that Alex would be a flight risk and provide "clear and convincing evidence, that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community."
The decision by the 9th Circuit to reopen the hearing validates our protests that Alex was denied a fair hearing. While this is not yet reason for celebration as Alex must again sit before Judge Real, it is a direct challenge to the government to provide more than hearsay and innuendo. Hopefully this decision by the 9th circuit will prove to be more than a symbolic gesture of equality. Come show your support for Alex by joining us at his bail hearing this Wednesday, Jan. 6t at 10:00 a.m!
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6TH PROTEST THE SENTENCING OF Steven Menendez and Jose Garcia
Written by Shadi Rahimi
Tuesday, 05 January 2010 09:45
Downtown L.A. Criminal Court Building (Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center) 210 West Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Court in Session at 8:30am / Judge Norm Shapiro, 11th Floor, Division 116 Press Conference - 1:30 pm, Downstairs on Temple
Steven was 14 and José was 16 when a 26-year-old told them to drive with him to "talk to some girls." Instead, the 26-year-old sat in the back seat and fired a gun out of the car, killing a teenager on the street. He was never arrested and has since been killed. But, the two teenagers were convicted of murder late last year after going back and forth between juvenile hall and court for nearly three years.
On Wednesday, January 6th, they will be sentenced. They face 50-to-Life (Steven) and Life Without the Possibility of Parole (Jose). They are being sentenced to die in prison. Thousands of California youth are serving similar sentences. Our goal is to pack the courtroom and follow it up with a media action outside. This will be the first of many actions in 2010 to push for the END OF LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE AND OTHER EXTREME SENTENCES FOR YOUTH IN CALIFORNIA, starting by working to PASS SENATE BILL 399 which made it through the State Senate last year, and must make it through the Assembly this year.
From the: Youth Justice Coalition Visit us @ Chuco's: 1137 E. Redondo Blvd., Inglewood, CA 90302 Mail us @: PO Box 73688, Los Angeles, CA 90003 Call us @: 323-235-4243 fax us @: 323-846-9472 E-mail us @:
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The CJNY's primary function is to be a support network for organizers and practitioners who are on the ground working with youth who are at risk or already involved in juvenile justice systems. We are also on:
The Community Justice Network for Youth (CJNY) is a program of the W. Haywood Burns Institute. This program is comprised of community-based programs, grassroots organizations, service-providing agencies, residential facilities and advocacy groups that focus their work on youth of color.
