Human Rights Watch

A new state-by-state analysis of how well America meets international standards on protecting its children gave low grades to every state.

Under legislation moving through the California Senate, teenagers who turn 18 and would otherwise be moved to adult jails could remain in juvenile facilities – a shift described as a protective measure against the deadly spread of coronavirus.

An appellate court in California has upheld the controversial 2018 law that prevents youth under the age of 16 from entering the adult criminal justice system. Since being signed into law in October 2018, district attorneys from a number of California counties have challenged Senate Bill 1391, arguing that it unconstitutionally amends Proposition 57, a 2016 ballot measure that gave judges the power to decide if a juvenile offender should be transferred to adult court.

As the controversy around SB 1391 — the new law in California that prevents youth younger than 16 years old from entering the adult criminal justice system — continues to play out in courts across the state, a group of legal scholars have issued a white paper defending the law’s constitutionality.

Several California district attorneys have launched an effort to roll back a landmark juvenile justice reform in California, a fight that both sides expect will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court of California.

A bill awaiting California Governor Jerry Brown’s signature would end mandatory, life-in-prison sentences for youth offenders in the state. Under the proposed law, Senate Bill 394, anyone under the age of 18 with a life sentence now or in the future would be entitled to a parole hearing by their 25th year of incarceration.

Early one morning in 2011, a 10-year-old Riverside boy named Joseph woke up, went downstairs and grabbed a .357 revolver from his parents’ bedroom closet. He walked over to the living-room couch where his white supremacist father was sleeping off a night of drinking and shot him in the head.

Juvenile-justice advocates in California are making a concerted push to gather signatures for a ballot measure that could decrease the number of juveniles tried in adult courts. In January, Governor Jerry Brown introduced the initiative for the November ballot as a way to redress several longstanding criminal justice issues at both the adult and juvenile levels.

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.