On the brink of closure, California's Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) requires critical attention. DJJ's inherent flaws and high costs led state leaders to heed long-standing calls for the closure of its youth correctional institutions in favor of local alternatives, a process known as juvenile justice realignment. DJJ stopped most youth…

As COVID-19 cases surge worldwide, young people in California's state-run youth correctional system, the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), remain at high risk of contracting the deadly virus. During a first-wave outbreak in June and July of 2020, DJJ was unable to control COVID-19's rapid spread, resulting in the infection of one in twelve youth…

California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed closing the Division of Juvenile Justice's (DJJ's) remaining facilities in favor of local alternatives as part of the 2020-21 state budget (Newsom, 2020). Communities across California have long organized to bring awareness about the systemic racism and harms of youth detention and incarceration. The…

California's youth correctional institutions are failing young people and their communities. The system--currently known as the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ)--exposes youth to a violent, prison-like environment that should shock the consciences of California lawmakers, advocates, and residents. Since the 1890s, the state's youth correctional…

In November 2020, Californians will vote on Proposition 20 ("Prop 20"), a ballot initiative that would roll back key elements of the state's recent justice reforms, including Public Safety Realignment, Proposition 47, and Proposition 57 (AB 109, 2011; Prop 47, 2014; Prop 57; 2016; SOS, 2018). In recent years, the Center on Juvenile and…

In January, California Governor Gavin Newsom released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2020-21 and included a substantial increase in spending for the state's dangerous and prison-like youth correctional institutions, currently known as the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) (CJCJ, 2019; DOF, 2020a). This proposed increase coincides with a…

Every year, thousands of young people are released from juvenile correctional institutions nationwide. When released, they face immediate challenges as they attempt to reintegrate into the community where they confront significant barriers to success. Understanding how to support youth when they are returning from a period of confinement requires…

California's state youth correctional system, the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), is violent, isolated, and lacks accountability. Fights and riots are a part of daily life and create a culture of fear. DJJ's violent conditions are concealed by an absence of state oversight and the facilities' long distances from youths' families and…

Violent youth crimes fell by 64 percent between 2008 and 2018 (Figure 1). For the last three years, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) has failed to specify the offense type for nearly 90 percent of youth arrests in San Francisco (CJCJ, 2018). However, arrest data over the last ten years show declines in violent arrests across all age…

In June 2019, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to close the city's juvenile hall, setting in motion a planning process that will culminate in the transfer of all remaining youth out of the facility and into community-led alternatives by the end of 2021. This analysis is the first in a series by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal…

Each year, California provides millions of state funding to counties to serve youth within their communities and reduce justice involvement through two major grant programs. First, the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA), which was enacted by the Schiff-Cardenas Crime Prevention Act and given its current name through a California Senate…

California maintains two sets of secure juvenile facilities: a state-run youth correctional system, the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), and 112 juvenile halls, camps, and ranches operated by county probation departments. Despite sustained declines in serious juvenile arrests and a reduction in commitments to the state, DJJ has not closed a…

Recently released statistics from the California Department of Justice (DOJ, 2017) show that arrests of youth ages 10-17 declined in 2016, reaching historically low levels. Arrest rates, which are reported to the state by local law enforcement agencies, fell for the ninth straight year in 2016, continuing a decades-long pattern of decline. Though…

This Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) fact sheet shows that, in 2015, arrests of young people under age 25 dropped below 2014 levels and continue a decades-long trend of decline. While the causes of these declines are unknown, falling youth arrests rates coupled with decreased youth incarceration suggest that high rates of…

From its inception in 1891 to present day, California's state youth corrections system has been mired in violence and abuse. In 1914, IQ testing and eugenics at state juvenile facilities resulted in the forced sterilization of poor, primarily non-white youth. In 1939, the suspicious suicide of a 13-year-old boy, the maltreatment of Latino youth,…