By Daphne Ho
SACRAMENTO, CA – The California Attorney General this week promised to be more attentive toward protection regulations regarding youths in the justice system.
In a press statement, AG Rob Bonta urged the “California Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) to take additional steps to strengthen protections for justice-involved youth” by identifying “nearly a dozen areas for commonsense reform to support safe and supportive conditions.”
Bonta said, “For justice-involved youth in particular, it is imperative that our institutions give them every opportunity for rehabilitation, growth, and healing. Children — no matter their circumstances — are our future. The way we treat children sets the foundation for who we will become.”
Bonta added, “I’m grateful to the Board of State and Community Corrections for taking steps to build on our state’s robust protections and I strongly urge them to consider my office’s additional recommendations.”
The BSCC, with Title 15, “sets and maintains statewide standards governing juvenile detention facilities and conditions of confinement for youth,” ranging from “the provision of education, programming, and recreation; to medical and mental healthcare; to disaster preparedness and emergency procedures.”
The AG Office said it is, “deeply committed to ensuring that facilities for the detention of youth maintain safe and supportive conditions..these basic, protective standards… for justice-involved youth” because “up to 70 percent of justice-involved youth… experience mental health issues at a rate higher than their peers.”
The statement adds the AG’s duties include making sure “youth detained in these facilities, at a minimum, receive the care, treatment, and services that are required by law and that promote rehabilitation,” including “programming, recreation, and exercise.”
The release describes some past efforts done by Bonta and his office to demonstrate their dedication toward “supporting the safety and wellbeing of children across California,” noting “In just the prior week, “the Attorney General, alongside… law enforcement, announced the arrest of 18 individuals for allegedly attempting to target children online for sex.”
Another example, the AG Office notes, occurred last year, where Bonta “filed an amicus brief urging an appellate court to support efforts by the Sacramento County Board of Education to keep children in school when addressing disciplinary issues.”
The AG also notes he “secured a stipulated judgment to protect child victims of sexual assault and abuse across Humboldt County,” “co-led a multistate effort to support stronger protections against sexual violence and harassment in schools” and “issued guidance to law enforcement statewide on techniques to reduce harm in interactions with sexually exploited youth.”
