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FESTIVAL NEWS
Gov. Schwarzenegger Meets with Books Not Bars Youth
Have you seen System Failure? This horrifying examination of the California Youth Authority demands urgent reform of the juvenile justice correctional system in California. By Tom Kingston: On May 16th 2005, parents, relatives, youth activists and members of Books Not Bars delivered 3,500 postcards from all over California to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The postcards demanded that all eight large youth prison facilities run by the California Youth Authority be shut down. Each card was intened to represent one of the 3,216 youth in CYA custody. That same day, the CYA unveiled a court-mandated plan to transform its internal philosophy from a punitive correctional, to an evidence-based, rehabilitative program. The governor has added some $19 million for CYA reforms but that is a mere fraction of the CYA's $400 million budget. The State Legislative Analyst's office says that renovating current facilities instead of shutting them down will cost $270 million. Why not, ask youth advocates, simply save that money and spend it on finding and adapting other state properties to create small rehabilitation centers as Missouri and other states have done? So far, 10 states have already, or are in the process of, closing down their youth prisons, acknowledging that the way to rehabilitate youth is in small group home settings, close to their families. Massachusetts started the process in the 1970s, then Missouri got into the act as a national model. If California really engages in the process, it could be the boulder that pushes an avalanche of reform down the mountain. Read more of Tim Kingston's report on the CYA, "Youth Authority's Extreme Makeover". Sign the Books Not Bars online petition to close the California Youth Authority.Published on May 24, 2005
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