Ending Youth
Incarceration
is POSSIBLE.
Here's how we
get there.
The Vera Institute of Justice and Young Women’s Freedom Center have released a landmark report ‘Freedom and Justice: Ending the Incarceration of Girls and Gender-Expansive Youth in California’.
This seminal report provides an in-depth look at the incarceration of girls and gender-expansive youth in California through an analysis of quantitative data as well as first-person stories and presents a roadmap of solutions for policy and practice changes that can be implemented to reduce—and eventually end—their incarceration.
Incarceration is a harmful and ineffective response to the challenges girls and gender-expansive youth are facing.
Girls and gender-expansive youth experience harm at EVERY point in the juvenile legal system – the young people interviewed for this report described verbal, physical, and sexual violence from arrest through incarceration, as well as failure to meet basic needs. The trauma from these experiences can last a lifetime.
This report explains WHY that is and HOW policy makers in every county in California can end girls’ incarceration and create community-based solutions that promote safety by building on successful work already happening across the state.