Thousands of California youth are incarcerated every year for low-level offenses. Our youth deserve a better approach, one that can have the added benefit of reducing the disproportionate impact the justice systems have on youth of color, children with disabilities, girls, LGBTQ youth, and foster children.
It is time we stop incarcerating our children and start investing in their future. I will be asking the state of California to establish The Youth Reinvestment Fund, which would add $100 million to the State’s budget to improve outcomes of vulnerable youth populations using trauma informed, community and health-based interventions in lieu of arrest, detention and incarceration.