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By the 1860s, recently arrived Euro-American immigrants to California perceive rates of juvenile crime to be increasing and eventually pressure California representatives to deal with this “growing menace to society.” State leaders begin studying prison policies already in place across the country with the intention of modernizing the system and taking control of their youth population.
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The New York House of Refuge is established to address child poverty through detaining and housing poor, vagrant youth who are thought to be on the path to delinquency. The House of Refuge provides youth with education, religious training, and trade apprenticeships. As the number of houses of refuge grow across the country, they eventually form the structure of the juvenile justice system in America. -
Arthur, an eleven-year old Mexican American from San Francisco, was a resident at the Whittier State School. Although Arthur was intelligent, he was seen as a troublemaker. The reform school housed delinquent and dependent children between the ages of 10 and 18. A few months after being released from the school, Arthur was arrested for burglary. As Arthur was believed to be too old for reform school, he was sent to San Quentin State Prison, established in 1852. -
The first juvenile court was established in Cook County, Illinois.
An influx of immigrants to the United States in the 19th century helps pave the way for the development of a separate system of justice for juveniles. Urban youth and the children of immigrants are thought to be more prone to deviant and immoral behavior than other youth. The state, by taking on the functions and responsibilities of a parent, can intervene and interrupt the bad influences of immigrant parents and urban settings. -
Several moments in history led to a significant increase in the negative impact of all systems of government including the justice system on people of color and those struggling with poverty.
The US population grows by more than 50%. Due to government incentives, home ownership soars to unprecedented levels after WW II and the majority of the United States becomes a suburban nation. In the 1960s and 1970s, with the extension of metropolitan freeways, a second phase of suburban growth unfolds. -
In Prince v. Massachusetts, the Supreme Court rules that no minor boy under 12 or girl under 18 shall sell newspapers, magazines, periodicals, or other articles of merchandise in the streets or other public places. The ruling is followed by many laws that target juveniles for acts of vagrancy and pauperism. -
In Kent v. United States, the Supreme Court rules that children considered for transfer to adult court need a judicial hearing to document findings and cause to transfer.
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In In re Gault, the Supreme Court rules that juvenile offenders are entitled to the same due process as adult offenders, including the right to timely notification of charges, the right to confront witnesses, the right against self-incrimination, and the right to counsel. -
In In re Winship, the Supreme Court increases the burden of proof in juvenile court cases from “preponderance of the evidence” to “beyond a reasonable doubt.” -
In McKeiver v. Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court rules that juveniles are not entitled to trial by jury in a juvenile court proceeding. -
The 1980s bring an increased interest in and crackdown on “gangs.” The federal definition of gangs used by Department of Justice is adopted by individual states, and throughout California —including the Los Angeles Police Department.
By the mid-1980s, Los Angeles law enforcement begins to use gang injunctions—restraining orders that apply restrictive rules to a group’s behaviors and activities. -
Over the last forty years, beginning in the 1980s, rates of incarceration for people of color have quintupled and drug offenses account for more than half the increase in state prison populations.
President Ronald Reagan declares a renewed commitment to the War on Drugs.
Between 1988 and 1996, President Clinton cracks down harder on drug offenses, delivering a “tough on crime” agenda that devotes billions of dollars to the drug war and passes harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes. -
Flores v. Reno challenges the process of detention, treatment, and release of children, as well as the conditions of facilities where children are. Decade in the court, appeal to the Supreme Court the US government agrees Flores Settlement to set standards for immigration detention centers where children are held, to release from immigration detention centers without unnecessary delay, if a suitable placement is not immediately available, setting appropriate to their age and any special needs.
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Farrell v. Harper is filed against the California Youth Authority, citing widespread abuse and neglect of youth in state facilities. When the case settles in 2016, the Department of Juvenile Justice has already taken over the California Youth Authority and implemented a comprehensive system to address education, medical care, sexual assault and harassment, safety, and effective rehabilitation services. -
Senate Bill 81, also known as the Juvenile Justice Realignment Bill, limits the types of nonviolent offenders who can be committed to state youth correctional institutions and provides funding to county probation systems to improve their capacity to handle higher risk offenders. -
The California Little Hoover Commission is established to examine the efficiency of state government operations and consists of a bipartisan board and a subcommittee that supervises public hearings regarding juvenile justice issues. The Commission recommends the closure of the Division of Juvenile Facilities. -
Assembly Bill 1729, also known as the School Suspension and Expulsion Bill, expands and re-defines the list of school-based behaviors, including bullying, that constitute grounds for student suspension or expulsion. AB 1729 also authorizes school districts to document additional responses to this behavior in the student’s official record. School suspensions and expulsions are linked to higher rates of juvenile detention and incarceration and contribute to the school to prison pipeline. -
Senate Bill 260, also known as the Youth Offender Parole Hearings Bill, requires the Board of Parole to conduct a “youth offender parole hearing” instead of an adult parole hearing and to consider release of offenders who committed specified crimes and were sentenced to state prison prior to being eighteen years old. The youth offender hearing takes the age and brain maturity of the offender into consideration when deciding on their release. -
Proposition 47 classifies “non-serious, nonviolent crimes” as misdemeanors instead of felonies unless the defendant has prior convictions for murder, rape, certain sex offenses, or certain gun crimes. -
Senate Bill 261, a revision of SB 260, requires the Board of Parole to conduct a “youth offender parole hearing” instead of an adult parole hearing, to consider release of offenders who committed specified crimes and were sentenced to state prison prior to being twenty-three years old. -
Senate Bill 527, also known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Grant Program, is written under Proposition 47 to establish the Learning Communities for School Success Program. This program controls the allocation of Department of Education funds used to support evidence-based, non-punitive practices that keep vulnerable youth in schools by addressing school climate, student engagement, and healthy accountability. -
Senate Bill 1391 repeals a prosecutor’s authority to transfer a minor, who is alleged to have committed certain serious offenses, from juvenile court to adult court if he or she were fourteen or fifteen years old at the time of the offense.
In August 2018, Senate Bill 10 is signed into law. -
SB 394 provides people who committed crimes at 16 or 17 and sentence to life without parole a chance to earn parole, with the first parole hearing possible after 24 years of incarceration.