Come July, California Will Swap Juvenile Jails for Reform-Minded Rehab Centers
March 18, 2021
Starting in July, California’s youth prisons will no longer be accepting new inmates, with a few exceptions. The state is moving most of the estimated 750 children it currently houses in its three remaining detention centers to rehabilitation facilities.
In California, the percentage of Black youth among incarcerated juveniles in California is nearly six times the percentage of African American children in the state. Children serving time in juvenile prisons are 30% Black and about 60% Latino even though African Americans account for nearly 6 % of California’s total population of about 40 million people. Latinos make up about 39 %