DA O'Malley: We Demand you Close DJJ The Right Way
District Attorney Nancy O'Malley
Help us reach 1000 petition signatures by September 10 when we meet with DA O'Malley!!!
This is a rare opportunity to create change and shift towards restorative justice instead of putting youth behind bars, but we are not confident that DA O'Malley and Alameda County will support youth. Instead, we fear that they will transfer youth into the adult prison system. Now that the California Department of Juvenile Justice will be closing, we ask you to stand with us to #CloseYouthPrisons, #BuildYouthLeaders, and make sure that Black and Brown youth in California have the chance to truly access support. Join us to reimagine our juvenile (in)justice system away from incarceration, and into creating opportunities for youth to be cared for and thrive.
Our Demands:
- We demand that DA Nancy O'Malley and the Alameda County District Attorney's Office stops trying youth as adults.
- We demand that the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council (JJCC) of Alameda County continues to meet regularly, and does not reduce its meeting times to once every 3 years to ensure that youth are being taken care of by our county.
- We demand a dedicated separate table for reimagining the juvenile justice system holistically, which can't be done on a JJCC subcommittee.
Background:
SB823 was passed into law from the California legislature in the summer of 2020. It's a bill that plans for the closing of the Department of Juvenile Justice's juvenile prison system (DJJ) in the state of California, and sets up a block grant for the Office of Youth and Community Restoration (OYCR) to support youth. It's a phased plan that will happen over the course of 5 years, and the DJJ will stop accepting new youth in July of 2021. Without a state option, youth will be sent to their home counties, and each county needs to create a plan for youth that would have otherwise been transferred to the DJJ.
The Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council in Alameda County was only given until early October to create a plan for all youth who would have been sent to the DJJ previously. This is a very unrealistic time frame to come up with a supportive and just plan for youth who are systems-impacted. Without a solid plan, youth will slip through the cracks and end up in the adult system (places like Santa Rita Jail which are known for cruelty and abuses).
DA O'Malley, we demand that you step in and take action to protect the systems-impacted youth of Alameda County who are disproportionately Black and Brown. We demand that youth are sent to Camp Sweeney and not to the adult system, that the JJCC continues to meet regularly, and the formation of a table to reimagine the juvenile justice system in Alameda County. We won't let youth slip through the cracks again.
Signed,
CURYJ, in partnership with Free Our Kids Coalition
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Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Haywood Burns Institute
Restore Oakland
Genesis
National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform
Urban Peace Movement
Young Women's Freedom Center
East Bay Community Law Center
67 Sueños
Justice Reinvestment Coalition of Alameda County
Youth Law Center
Sponsored by
To:
District Attorney Nancy O'Malley
From:
[Your Name]
DA O'Malley,
As Alameda County works with the JJCC to create a plan for the closing of the DJJ, we need to make sure that youth don't slip through the cracks and end up in the adult prison system. The youth are disproportionally Black & Brown, and we need to make sure they don't get left behind. See our demands here:
1. We demand that DA O'Malley Commits to sending youth to Camp Sweeney instead of transferring them into the adult system.
2. We demand that the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council (JJCC) of Alameda County continues to meet regularly, and does not reduce its meeting times to once every 3 years to ensure that youth are being taken care of by our county.
3. We demand a dedicated separate table for reimagining the juvenile justice system holistically, which can't be done on a JJCC subcommittee.
We are counting on you to protect youth in Alameda County.