California Enacts Youthful Offender Legislation
California Enacts Youthful Offender Legislation
California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on September 27, 2014 Assembly Bill 1276 establishing a panel-based review board to determine whether incoming prisoners, age 22 and under, are to be housed in maximum security units. The bill, advocated by Human Rights Watch, is designed as an alternative to sending young prisoners to “level IV yards,” the toughest prisons, where vulnerability is ruthlessly exploited, and to offer the increased educational and self-help opportunities found at lower-security prisons.
Elizabeth Calvin, Senior Children’s Rights Advocate for Human Rights Watch, said it will change the lives of thousands of the nearly 5000 young people entering the California prison system each year. “With this law California will help protect the young people it sends to prison from being raped, beaten, or forced to join gangs.”
In researching for advocacy, Human Rights Watch collected personal accounts of over 500 prisoners who were sent to prison when they were young. Typical: “I came to prison at the age of 20 and it was very hard for me as a younger person being around older men who were crazy,” said J. M. “I had to listen to them tell me what to do, wrong or right. I had to listen to them or be hurt. It messed with my mind 24-7.”
Source: United Press International
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