California Youth Authority Set to Close All Doors by June 30th
Reformers celebrating the shutdowns also concerned about next steps
After a two-year wind-down, California is in the final weeks of closing its notoriously grim youth prison system, a landmark moment that arrives as juvenile crime hovers at near-record lows and state leaders call for a shift in focus from punishment to rehabilitation. Annual arrests for violent crimes involving youths ages 10 to 17 plummeted nearly 82% in the quarter-century ending in 2021. In 1996, state and county lockups held 20,440 youths. By the end of 2022, the number had fallen to 2,582.
The 11 lockups the Division of Juvenile Justice once operated will be replaced by an array of programs devised by probation departments in California’s 58 counties. Many of these localities have little experience with the long-term care of young people convicted of serious crimes, which is a cause of concern for juvenile justice reform advocates.
Youth advocates fought for years to revamp the state’s juvenile justice model, which operated as a sort of halfway point between county juvenile halls and adult state prisons for youths convicted of serious felonies, including murder. They lambasted the state system for fostering a culture of violence, ethnic conflict and gang intimidation. But they now worry the county replacements are no better prepared to provide the kind of education, recreation and support services most conducive to rehabilitation.
Many of the youths being transitioned out of the Division of Juvenile Justice will land in secure youth treatment facilities, units of local juvenile systems that some advocates describe as “concrete jails.” Concerns about the lockups are running especially high in Los Angeles County, where last month an 18-year-old died of an overdose inside a razor-wired treatment facility that sports the nickname “the Compound.”
“Although DJJ’s closure will end this brutal chapter in California’s history, it will not bring an end to the harm and abuse that exists in each of California’s 58 county-level juvenile justice systems,” read a report from watchdog Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. “These systems fall far short of the safe, restorative, and caring approach youth deserve.”
You can read and download the report titled "Crisis Before Closure; Dangerous Conditions Define the Final Months of California's Division of Juvenile Justice" from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice website.
