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‘It’s pretty cool.’ Parents of juvenile offenders see their kids’ art in the courthouse

From the Sacramento Bee

There are two large, glass display cases to the right when you walk through the Sacramento County Juvenile Court. One features a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. constructed from colorful, handmade paper squares. The other has woodwork pieces, including two birdhouses, a small Christmas tree, and a snowman painted white sporting a top hat and red bow tie.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Chief Terri McDonald Discuss Importance of Juvenile Justice Realignment
Probation Chiefs Commemorate 10 Year Anniversary of Historic Reform

Chief Terri McDonald Discuss Importance of Juvenile Justice Realignment

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. 

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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.

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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.