California Budget and Legislation

With the passage of Wednesday budget, the state stands to save hundreds of millions of dollars — and save juveniles in the state's youth correctional system years of  incarceration. The Ella Baker Center has worked tirelessly for the past few years to bring an end to this harmful practice. KPCC's Rina Palta talks with Sumayyah Waheed of the Ella Baker Center about this important victory. 

...introduction of legislation in California that would make the maximum penalty for possession of drugs for personal use one year in county jail rather than the current three years.

I've been working on issues of police accountability, locked-up youth, violence, and community investment for a long time. Sometimes I think that no example of injustice could still surprise me. I was recently proved wrong.

Complaints by both a current ward at Ventura and the Ella Baker Human Rights Center in San Francisco include charges of overuse of solitary confinement — a previously documented practice — filthy showers, toilets that overflow and leak and air vents that smell like sewage.

TOILETS BROKEN, SEWAGE, CHEMICAL AGENTS ALL DOCUMENTED IN YOUTH-LED PETITION TO VENTURA YOUTH PRISON

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano’s bill (D-San Francisco) to restore media access to prisoners, AB 1270, passed the California Assembly today. The bill would remove restrictions on pre-arranged in-person interviews with specific prison inmates. Since these restrictions went into effect in 1996, eight versions of the bill have been vetoed by three different governors.  

California, often a trendsetter, could make history if it approves Gov. Jerry Brown’s bid to close all state-run youth prisons and eliminate its state Division of Juvenile Justice.

The LA County Board of Supervisors is due to vote this month on approving Baca’s application. But groups like the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the Youth Justice Coalition, and Californians United for a Responsible Budget, are collecting signatures to petition the County Board of Supervisors to vote against the deal.

For the second time in one year, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed permanently closing the Division of Juvenile Justice, a move that would make California the first state in the nation to eliminate its youth prison system and shift responsibility for the most dangerous young offenders to counties.