Central Valley Youth Call on State to Shut-Down the CYA and fund alternatives

Central Valley Youth Call on State to Shut-Down the CYA and fund education as well as alternatives to incarceration.

Over 200 Participants attended the 2005 Escuelas Si! Pintas No! (Schools Yes! Prisons No!) 3rd Annual Central Valley Youth Organizing Summit to advocate for the State to re-direct funds used to lock-up young people to support community-based, owned and operated alternatives to incarceration.

Stockton, CA: Youth, parents and community leaders from across the Central Valley gatheed this past weekend at the ESPINO, “Breaking the Schools to Jails Pipeline, Making the Schools to Colleges Pipeline” Summit at the University of the Pacific Conference to discuss and strategize on how to provide quality education, implement alternatives to incarceration and promote access and opportunity to higher education.



California is currently spending $400 million a year on a system that harms young people and the fails the public safety interest. With a 90 percent recidivism rate, four deaths in 2004 alone, documented cases of abuse and neglect - the CYA must be shut-down. The CYA fails to achieve its mission to rehabilitate youth in trouble and provide for public safety. The CYA is costly and obsolete. According to the legislative analysts office, “the CYA is approaching the point where buildings and infrastructure must either be replaced or require significant investment for renovation and renewal.” The CYA is falling apart and failing, now is the time for the State of California to cut funds from CYA and put those dollars to real efforts in the community to rehabilitate and reintegrate youth and towards education.



In September 2005, The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) issued a report that finds that county-level and community-based programs are cost efficient and effective. Such as the Santa Cruz County Juvenile Corrections system, which is guided by four values: family preservation, interagency collaboration and coordinated service delivery system, family involvement, and cultural competence. Through the Santa Cruz probation departments reform efforts they reduced the juvenile hall population from 61 to 18 in 8 years and has reduced its average length of detention stay from the 27-day state-average to 10 days. Ninety-five percent of youth complete their programs without re-offending.



Instead of funding effective alternatives to incarceration, the Governor approved a $500 million increase in funding for prisons, because the California Department of Corrections overspent its budget. A recent analysis by the Associated Press found that CDC has overspent its budget every year over the last five, to a total of 1.4 billion in overspending. Most of that overspending went to the staffing of prisons. While the Governor proposes modest cuts to prison spending, he proposed slashing $2 billion from K-12 education, $1.3 billion from local governments, and continued with plans to chop $3.9 from social services and health care. Instead of hiring the proposed 1,000 new guards, the Governor should create a better and stronger California by reducing prison spending and providing funds to ensure that all of the youth of California are receiving a quality education and support and services to become healthy adults.