Submitted by crinadmin on
This week, California’s Little Hoover Commission, a nonpartisan independent state agency that analyses and monitors state policies, called upon the governor and legislature to close the remaining state-run youth prisons by 2011 and replace them with a network of regional facilities administered by the counties. In its report entitled Juvenile Justice Reform: Realigning Responsibilities, the Commission noted that despite spending more than $250,000 per inmate, the State’s Division of Juvenile Justice remains unable to deliver effective services “as crumbling facilities continue to age.” In preparing its report, the commission sought the testimony of leading California juvenile justice experts and practitioners including CJCJ Executive Director Daniel Macallair, Youth Law Center Attorney Sue Burrell and David Steinhart of Commonweal, who urged the state to adopt a regional based system modeled on successful efforts in other states such as Missouri. After two full days of hearings in Sacramento and months of staff research, the bipartisan Commission called for California lawmakers to: According to CJCJ’s Daniel Macallair, “the recommendations represent the most sweeping juvenile justice reforms in state history and will require leadership from the legislature and governor.” Download the full text of the report as well as the transcripts of testimonies at: http://www.lhc.ca.gov/lhcdir/report192.html View the public hearings of November 15, 2007 and February 28, 2008: http://www.calchannel.com/search.php?date=111507&source=All&type=All&title=Little+Hoover+Commission&Search=Submit Further information
pdf: http://www.crin.org/docs/report192.pdf