$30,000 / 2014
Inglewood, CA
Kim McGill, Lead Organizer
Website: www.youth4justice.org
Hazen’s renewed $30,000 funding will enable the Youth Justice Coalition 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 prioritizing five campaigns: impacting the conditions of confinement; challenging LA County’s War on Gangs; reducing LA County’s over reliance on incarceration in order to re-allocate resources to community-based alternatives; repealing Juvenile Life Without Parole; challenging LA County’s pushout and discipline policies that enforce the school-to-jail track. During the last grant period, the Youth Justice Coalition called for the establishment of a free student Metro pass for all youth in LA County, pre-school through college and won a diversion from all fare evasion tickets for youth under 18 riding the bus or Metro without fare. YJC has also demanded the notification to youth and their families when they are added to the statewide (CalGang) Database, winning a right to appeal to have names removed, including the right to clear and fair removal process, and right to notification when removed. YJC was also successful in ended the practice of curfew violations for all injunctions in the city of Los Angeles and mobilized Northeast LA communities to challenge the Glendale Boulevard gang injunction both in court and City Attorney’s office. YJC is an active member of the Statewide Work Group including Human Rights Watch and several juvenile defenders to end the sentencing of youth in California to life without parole, as well as of CURB (Californians United for a Responsible Budget), which advocate for reductions in the state funding of prisons. At the national level, YJC is on the Advisory Board of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, the Violence Prevention Coalition and represents California on the National Juvenile Justice Network.