NCYL works to ensure that youth in trouble with the law are treated appropriately for their age and capacity to change. NCYL promotes reforms that keep youth from entering the juvenile justice system and helps create community-based treatment programs.
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 21, 2011 California lawmakers have repeatedly missed opportunities to bring some fairness, rationality and humanity to juvenile sentencing. They get another chance this week, and they should take it. The Assembly should pass SB 9, a bill to give offenders sentenced as minors to life without parole a chance to request a parole hearing.
San Jose Mercury News, Aug. 21, 2011 California's practice of locking teenage offenders in prison for life without the possibility of parole would be upended under legislation just a few votes shy of reaching the governor's desk -- a change that would move the state closer to justice in conservative Texas and every other country in the world. NCYL Director John O'Toole is interviewed in this story.
CA SB 9 Gives 'Second Chance' to Youth Sentenced to Life Without Parole
California SB 9, co-sponsored by NCYL, has already won approval of the Senate and has cleared the Assembly Appropriations Committee. It will go to the full Assembly for a vote in September! Read the latest coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle:
The National Center for Youth Law, Disability Rights Texas, and Texas Appleseed have issued a new report: Thinking Outside the Cell: Alternatives to Incarceration for Youth with Mental Health Needs.
A Review of Alameda County's Collaborative Mental Health Court
Youth spend less time in detention and are less likely to get in trouble with the law after participating in Alameda county's juvenile mental health court. In this report, NCYL describes the workings of the Alameda County Juvenile Collaborative Court, its participants, and the results the court has seen since being established in 2007.
Jan. 3, 2011 - Sara Kruzan, who was sentenced to life without parole for killing her 37-year-old pimp when she was 16, was granted clemency by outgoing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Governor reduced Sara's sentence to 25 years to life, allowing the possibility of parole. Sara, now 33, has spent over 16 years in prison.
Dec. 21, 2010 - A California Superior Court judge has ruled that relative caregivers are entitled to cash assistance when the children they care for get in trouble with the law and are returned home on probation.
Unlike any other state in the nation, Wyoming commonly prosecutes children as adults, often imposing adult sentences for normal adolescent misbehavior. The majority of children in trouble with the law in Wyoming are being processed through adult courts, where they become saddled with adult criminal convictions. Children as young as 8 are being criminally prosecuted for such minor offenses as stealing a pack of gum or skateboarding in a restricted area.
NCYL is working with Wyoming advocates, government officials, and others to reform the state's juvenile justice system.
NCYL has joined other advocates in calling for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into reports of violence, improper use of restraints, and program deficiencies in 10 secure lockdown facilities operated by the Texas Youth Commission. » Read more about NCYL's work in Texas
Juvenile justice systems around California are awakening to the needs of a new population: girls. As girls enter the delinquency system in ever-increasing numbers, several California counties have established new delinquency courts and treatment programs tailored specifically to girls and their unique issues and needs.
May 2011
Check out Staff Attorney Patricia Soung's article in the latest issue of Northwestern's Journal of Law and Social Policy:
July 11, 2011 Just four years ago, the Texas juvenile justice system was awash in allegations of brutality, neglect and sexual abuse by staff members. Thanks to leadership by Gov. Rick Perry and thoughtful, decisive action by the Legislature, a state juvenile justice system that was in chaos a few years ago is making impressive strides. Texas's Progress on Juvenile Justice
