After six years with the Ella Baker Center, families continue to amaze me with the strength and power of their fight to win humane treatment for their youth. Sacramento’ CBS station, KOVR 13, witnessed some of this power and aired it in a damning investigation of California’s youth prisons last… Read more
This blog is part of our series celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. You can celebrate with us at the 2011 Ellas: 15 Years of People-Powered Change, or submit your own anniversary memory or wish to ellasvoice@ellabakercenter.org.
I remember my first… Read more
This blog is part of our series celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. You can celebrate with us at 2011 Ellas: 15 Years of People-Powered Change, or submit your own anniversary memory or wish to ellasvoice@ellabakercenter.org.
As a high school… Read more
This blog is part of our series celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. You can celebrate with us at the 2011 Ellas: 15 Years of People-Powered Change, or submit your own anniversary memory or wish to ellasvoice@ellabakercenter.org.
I… Read more
The protest at the Ventura Youth Prison on Sunday, August 21, 2011 was truly amazing. Everyone who attended gave it their all.
It also made me take a hard look at the long fight we still have in the DJJ. As we gathered at the area they designated… Read more
As families struggle to send their loved ones back to school, families of incarcerated youth in the California youth prison system are painfully fighting for simple improvements like clean food, medical treatment and
This blog originally appeared as an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Daily News.
When I first held my oldest son Jesse 17 years ago in my arms, the light in his eyes was so bright. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, he loved to write and… Read more
Last weekend, I traveled to the Ventura Youth Prison in Camarillo, CA. There I joined families of incarcerated youth, formerly incarcerated youth, and allies from across the state to decry the abuses of the Division of Juvenile Justice. Their stories reveal a system that is violent, abusive and ineffective at… Read more
I had forgotten their stories. I had put away in my mind the incarceration of two of my younger siblings when they were teenagers. My brother was maced into signing his confession, and imprisoned for almost a year. My baby sister was sent hours away from home to a correctional… Read more
As a person of faith, I believe that living out my faith is a call to promote freedom. In our society, however, freedom seems to exist as a privilege for those with more power and opportunities. Freedom is definitely a tricky thing for the youth who live behind the bars… Read more
