Analysis

As California prepares for a major shake-up of its juvenile justice system, a new report suggests that counties are increasingly relying on jail-like juvenile halls to hold youth for long periods of time on indeterminate sentences.

Ángela Quijada-Banks wants to make sure no one ages out of foster care like she did.

When she left North Carolina’s foster care system as a teen, she had to scramble to find housing, just days before the start of her college classes.

As the number of youth locked up in Los Angeles County’s detention facilities plunged to a historic low during the pandemic, costs have soared, renewing calls to strip funding from the Probation Department and shutter increasingly expensive juvenile halls and camps.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Wednesday with a laundry list of instructions for his administration on child welfare. The order does not appear to direct new money to states – in one place, it might be calling for tighter restrictions on federal funds – but it does lay out new data collection and technical assistance aimed at reducing the use of, and time spent in, foster care.  

As the gravity of the coronavirus that has now claimed the lives of nearly 120,000 Americans set in, California was among the first states where college campuses began to abruptly shut down campuses and send students away with instructions to continue learning remotely.

Over the past several days, America has, yet again, borne witness to how deeply its people are wounded and angered over the disproportionate use of deadly force by police on African Americans. 

Jeffrey Thomas has always used basketball as an outlet when times get tough. But nowadays when the 23-year-old Southern Californian needs to take a breather, the natural extrovert can’t meet up with his friends or family.

At some point, the world and the nation will get past the initial, horrific onset of the coronavirus pandemic. In its wake will almost certainly be a recession, corresponding unemployment and hard times for millions of American families. 

Consider this scenario, likely to repeat itself across the country. In a month or two or more from now, my client will appear before a juvenile court judge for the first time since the coronavirus crisis forced courts to close their doors.