California's youth prison system will shut down prisons for the first time in 4 years! The Division of Juvenile Justice announced last week that El Paso de Robles and Dewitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facilities will close by July 31 this year.
Located in Paso Robles, El Paso de Robles is one of the most remote of the state's eight youth prisons, and holds about 150 young men. This facility recently made headlines for its accidental use of overly potent tear gas on the youth. Dewitt Nelson, one of three Stockton youth prisons, holds 260 youth. All of the youth will be transferred to other DJJ prisons -- and we'll work to make sure they're close to their families in the process.
This is a huge step, and we're thrilled. But the guard-provoked racial violence, abuses, and medical neglect won't stop with Paso and Dewitt closing. Our youth, families and the public deserve a better system of care, and we'll push harder than ever in 2008 to ensure that this is only the beginning.
Some Background We launched our campaign to close California's abusive and wasteful youth prisons in 2004. Back then, 5,000 kids languished in the violent warehouse prisons, where they were provided almost no education and received punishment instead of treatment for their mental health needs. Over the last four years, we've worked hard to reduce youth prison populations and expose just how bleak, abusive and wasteful California's juvenile justice system really is. Now that the cost to run these prisons has skyrocketed to $216,000 per youth per year, the state has finally started to act.
Last year, Books Not Bars supported Governor Schwarzenegger's plan to keep low-risk, low-need youth local instead of shipping them out to state prisons. These prison closures are the first step in fixing a much bigger problem, and a result of our work over the years.
