In 2020, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 823, which mandated that California's youth state prisons be closed by June 2023, and shifted the responsibility to counties of housing and treating youth who would have otherwise been sent to state institutions.

Since then, counties have been tasked with creating facilities that are supposed to provide evidence-based, therapeutic environments and alternatives to incarceration, with the goal to minimize the population of incarcerated youth. In many counties, including Los Angeles, this transition has only exacerbated decades of substandard, inhumane, and dangerous conditions for youth residing in these facilities.

Join us on Wednesday, February 7 from 12:15-1:30 PM for a panel discussion about the work local and statewide advocates are doing to realize a vision of community-based, trauma-informed alternatives to incarceration, as well as challenges they are facing in the fight to end youth incarceration. Our panel features:

• Ka'lee Matthews, Youth Advocate, Arts for Healing and Justice Network
• Grecia Reséndez, Policy Analyst, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
• Aditi Sherikar, Senior Policy Associate, Children's Defense Fund California

The panel will be moderated by Leah Zeidler-Ordaz, Youth Justice Policy Lead, UCLA Law's Criminal Justice Program. Lunch will be provided.

Please RSVP HERE.