A roundup of some of The Imprint’s most impactful stories from 2020.
America’s most populous state has put itself on a path to hand over all youth incarceration to local government, and its largest city is pondering a complete reimagining of what juvenile justice means.
Lead Read: After decades of controversy and lawsuits around California’s slate of large state-run juvenile prisons, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and the Legislature reached a deal this year to stop accepting new inmates beginning in July of 2021. The plan will soon push the issue of incarceration to the county level in California.
“We don’t want to replace state cages with county cages,” Kim McGill, an organizer with the Los Angeles-based Youth Justice Coalition, told Imprint report Jeremy Loudenback. “Even with the once-unimaginable shift now being rolled out, she added, “we need to stay vigilant.”
Also Read: The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors has provided preliminary approval to move forward with a massive overhaul of the county’s juvenile justice system that would shutter all of its existing incarceration settings.
In November, Los Angeles voters approved Measure J, which requires the county to dedicate at least 10% of its unrestricted funds to youth development and other community investments as well as alternatives to incarceration.
