ARTICLE TAG

Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC)

Los Angeles County Avoids Juvenile Hall Closures, but New Problems Surface

9/16/2021

State Agency Declares L.A.’s Juvenile Halls ‘Unsuitable for Confinement of Minors’

On Thursday, the California Board of State and Community Corrections found L.A. County’s Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall and Central Juvenile Hall out of compliance with state regulations. Photo by Jeremy Loudenback
Nine months after the state sued Los Angeles County over conditions for incarcerated youth, a California regulatory agency has determined that the county’s juvenile halls are “presently unsuitable for the confinement of minors.” 

8/2/2020

California Counties Empty Juvenile Halls to Combat COVID-19

The exterior wall of the El Dorado County Juvenile Hall in Placerville, California. Photo: Max Whittaker, Prime Collective
Seeking to avoid outbreaks of coronavirus, within a matter of months, county officials across California have dramatically reduced the numbers of youth locked in juvenile detention facilities – a decrease that justice advocates long decrying the over-incarceration of the nation’s young people might once have dreamed of.

5/9/2018

$100 Million Diversion Effort Aims to Keep California Youth Avoid Lock Up

Advocates in California are lobbying Gov. Jerry Brown (D) to set aside $100 million for an effort to steer young people away from involvement in the juvenile justice system across the state.

9/7/2017

New Underwear Is Just One Way California’s Juvenile Detention System Could Live Up to National Standards

For the past nine months, advocates have been mounting a campaign to improve the living conditions of youth incarcerated in California’s juvenile halls, camps and ranches. Changes up for approval include requirements that correctional staff respect the gender identity of youth, and that incarcerated youth are granted visits from their children.

8/10/2017

Youth Prison Paradox: Californians Want Them Shut Down While Counties Keep Building

According to a new poll released Wednesday by the California Endowment, a majority of California residents say they’d like to see all of the state’s juvenile incarceration facilities closed down. The survey comes at a time when counties are adapting to a significant downturn in youth crime and flagging numbers of young people incarcerated at juvenile camps, halls and ranches across the state.

2/16/2017

From Lock Up to Leaders: Formerly Incarcerated Youth Help Direct Juvenile Justice Policy in California

When Juan Gomez first arrived at a notorious California youth prison in rural Amador County at the age of 16, he remembers an acute sense of powerlessness. Guards at the Preston Youth Correctional Facility patrolled the grounds with impunity, meting out beatings and macings to the youth locked up there.

    1/27/2017

    ‘Rooms Infested With Spiders’: California Youth Urge Changes in Conditions at Juvenile Facilities

    Nearly six years after he spent more than a month locked up in a juvenile hall in Los Angeles County, Francisco Martines vividly recalled the conditions in his cell. Inside the small concrete room at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, Calif.,

    5/26/2015

    Holding on to Humanity

    A social worker’s visit with youth offenders at Pelican Bay State Prison. By Wendy Smith The road to Pelican Bay State Prison led through majestic redwoods a stone’s throw from the stirring beauty of Pacific Ocean coastal waters.

    7/31/2014

    Little-known Agency Central to Criminal Justice Reform

    Most people have never heard of California’s Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC). But the little-known agency, with 83 employees and a $16 million annual operations budget, packs a punch.