News Coverage
Monterey County reentry program graduates ready for change
February 14, 2018
From The Californian
Sharon Barajas has gotten her life together at the Monterey County Day Reporting Center after being placed on felony probation, Barajas told a roomful of people in Salinas on Monday night.
“I wasn’t doing very well, I wasn’t on a good path and I needed a wake-up call and this definitely was the start of a new life for me,” said Barajas.
Rebuilding futures: Young offenders graduate from Chaderjian’s new construction program
January 25, 2018
From The Record -
As Jonathan Hernandez-Sanchez walked into his graduation ceremony Thursday, he scanned the room for his mother.
He knew his mom, Yvette Sanchez, was somewhere among the dozens of businessmen, dignitaries and correctional officers gathered to watch him and his peers receive their certificates.
Can the Design of L.A.’s New Juvenile Detention Facility Change the Future of Youth Incarceration?
Malibu’s Campus Kilpatrick detention facility aims to be a national model for juvenile justice through a humanizing architecture.
From Metropolis -
Overlooking Malibu, in the midst of the Santa Monica Mountains’ vineyard-dotted landscape, lies Los Angeles County’s $48 million wager on the future of youth incarceration.
Campus Kilpatrick opened its doors in July, replacing a 1960s complex known as Camp Vernon Kilpatrick. California lawmakers voted to allocate County funds to demolish and rebuild the dilapidated detention facility and its harsh, barracks-style quarters.
California may up its rehab efforts to keep ex-inmates from returning to prison
January 24, 2018
From CALmatters -
Gov. Jerry Brown wants to add millions in new spending on programs to help former inmates stay out of jail—a proposal generating bipartisan praise because of concern they are returning to prison in large numbers. But some say it still isn’t enough.
The proposed $50 million would expand job training for prisoners and assist them in finding jobs once they are released, such as training them to become firefighters.
Criminal justice reform is working
December 22, 2017
From the Press Enterprise -
Over the past several years, California has dramatically reduced the prison population, given hundreds of thousands of people the opportunity to live a better life free from the burden of a felony record for low-level offenses and freed up hundreds of millions of dollars for crime prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.
California prison rehabilitation programs should actually work
December 13, 2017
From the OC Register - California has work to do to ensure that prison rehabilitation programs serve their purpose, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office recent reported.
Riverside County adopts “Lean” approach to transforming probation department
From CA Fwd - When data from a Riverside County jail study were released last year, the county’s probation department responded by changing the way it did business. The report, conducted by CA Fwd’s Justice System Change Initiative (J-SCI), showed nearly half of the daily jail population was not in custody for a new crime.
Chief Terri McDonald Discuss Importance of Juvenile Justice Realignment
Probation Chiefs Commemorate 10 Year Anniversary of Historic Reform
Watch Los Angeles County Chief Probation Officer Terri McDonald discuss the importance of Juvenile Justice Realignment and how it has helped make significant progress in California’s juvenile justice system.
Juvenile Justice Realignment began with the passage of Senate Bill 81 in 2007. This legislation shifted the responsibility for the majority of youth in the juvenile justice system from the state to county probation departments and away from the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) run by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Juvenile crime rates plummet amid new approaches to tackling youth crime
San Diego County
When San Diego County went looking for grant funds to help build a 300-bed jail for juveniles, officials argued that the 1950s-era Juvenile Hall on Meadowlark Lane was strained to the breaking point.
“There is literally no more room at the inn,” the county warned in a grant application in 1999 seeking $36 million in construction funds for what would become, in 2004, the East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility.
And things were only going to get worse: At the time, the county estimated it would need 1,284 beds to house all its juvenile offenders by 2015.
Remember the real goals of state’s Proposition 57
By Chief Mary Butler
From the San Diego Union Tribune
In November, the Chief Probation Officers of California (CPOC) supported and co-signed Proposition 57: The Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act. CPOC supported Proposition 57 because as leaders in the probation industry, we believe Proposition 57 lays out a framework for a strong foundation to build on and enhance a better system for public safety.
AB 1250 will hurt critical public safety reforms
By Chief Butler and Mark Bontrager
From Napa Valley Register
AB 1250, which is currently moving through the California Legislature, would have detrimental effects on critical public safety reforms in California.
Federal judge was warned not to release man who killed Sacramento Co. deputy
Reporter: Kevin Oliver
From KCRA News
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
An assistant U.S. attorney warned a federal judge not to release
Thomas Littlecloud last summer, saying he had talked about
shooting police and he had rammed police cars before to get away.
Authorities said Littlecloud shot two California Highway Patrol officers and killed Sacramento County sheriff’s Deputy Robert French when they tried to serve a search warrant at a Ramada Inn last month.