In 2019, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors assembled a group of local youth leaders and advocates, judges, prosecutors, public defenders and county agency directors and tasked them to re-invent juvenile justice in the state’s most populous county.
The resulting recommendations from the commission, called the Youth Justice Advisory Group, proposed that the county adopt a more care-oriented public safety strategy that and focused less on incarceration and supervision and instead prioritized health well-being, restorative justice and crisis mitigation. The entire report can be found in the 2020 report, Youth Justice Reimagined.
The W. Haywood Burns Institute served as consultants to facilitate the Youth Justice Advisory Group’s work.
Below are highlights and news articles from the progress in Los Angeles County:
- L.A County Votes to Reimagine Youth Justice https://burnsinstitute.org/la-county-votes-to-reimagine-youth-justice/
- Los Angeles District Attorney Vows to Stop Prosecuting Juveniles as Adults https://burnsinstitute.org/revamping-la-countys-youth-justice-system/
Other Resources:
- Recommendations of the Youth Justice Work Group DJJ Transition Team https://burnsinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/DJJ-Transition-Team-Report_December-2020_Final.pdf
- California youth face heightened racial and ethnic disparities in division of juvenile justice https://burnsinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/DJJ-Fact-Sheet-2020.pdf
- Youth prosecuted as adults in California https://burnsinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Youth-Prosecuted-as-Adults-in-California_compressed.pdf
