$75,000 / 2015
PO Box 73688
Los Angeles, CA 90003
Kim McGill, Lead Organizer
Website: www.youth4justice.org
Hazen’s three year $75,000 in renewed funding will enable the Youth Justice Coalition (YJC) to continue to organize young people in or affected by the juvenile and criminal justice systems to end disproportionate contact with law enforcement and confinement of people of color. Last year, YJC brought awareness to over-ticketing for fare evasion infractions and successfully called for the establishment of a free student Metro pass for all youth in the county, pre-school through college. In addition, YJC’s local efforts to dismantle the school-to-jail track also resulted in a first step toward protecting the rights of all youth to return to a comprehensive LAUSD high school with the passing of SB1111, and also statewide with the passing of AB2276, both which went into effect January 2015. Over the next two years, YJC will demand for policies to require that agencies regularly collect and release data on school discipline and push-outs, decriminalize low-level infractions, establish and strengthen community and school-based alternatives to school discipline and organize to close and consolidation lock-up and prison facilities.