Social Justice Magazine
When Jeanette Chavez heard her daughter had been shot and taken to the hospital emergency room, she rushed to the hospital in Arcadia and was met with the news that Samantha had passed away. Chavez burst into tears and was promptly approached by a sheriff's deputy who said nothing about rights but warned the bereaved mother she would be escorted out of the hospital if she didn't stop … [Read more...]
African American Drop Out Rate Over a million US students who start high school this year won't finish. In Los Angeles, only about half of entering students graduate, earning the city the designation by Education Week as a "dropout epicenter." But the National Dignity in Schools Campaign reframes the issue: most kids who don't finish haven't "dropped out." They've been "pushed out" by a culture … [Read more...]
Legend has it that Cervantes was locked in a jail cell when he began to write the adventures of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. Centuries later, exiled Argentinean theatre artist Arístides Vargas linked the Spanish classic of rejecting and transcending reality to the experience of his brother Chicho, imprisoned during their country's brutal military dictatorship and dirty war, who told how the … [Read more...]
The structural problems in California's governance seem to resist solution, acknowledged Victor Gold, Dean of Loyola Law School downtown as he welcomed students, policy wonks, civic leaders, and other members of the public to his campus on Friday for a full-day symposium: Rebooting California: Initiatives, Conventions, and Government Reform. "Can we start over at least in part?" was his challenge … [Read more...]
I don't have the heart to write this.For years, Sen. Leland Yee has been trying to convince the California State legislature to reform JLWOP-- Juvenile Life Without Parole, that is, minors being sentenced to remain behind bars till they die. Yee is not only a State Senator, but also a child psychologist who knows very well that the judgment of a teenager is very different from the judgment of … [Read more...]
Hector Aristizábal lay on a table in Medellín, Colombia, his head covered with a black cloth. Twenty-eight years had passed since he was taken from his home by the US-trained military, secretly detained and tortured. Now he had returned to his birthplace after years in exile in the US to spend a month working with peace and justice groups and this night he was not in custody but onstage. … [Read more...]
"We love the students," says Monic Uriarte, a community health promoter with the nonprofit Esperanza Community Housing Corporation as she leads the way along 36th Place near the University of Southern California. "Students have joined our coalition. Unfortunately, a lot of residents see students as the competition for housing because we are being displaced." Uriarte is one of the Esperanza staff … [Read more...]
Three Strikes and the Prison Industrial Complex"We're fasting for freedom," proclaimed Geri Silva, "because we're starving for justice." Silva, founder of FACTS, Families to Amend California's Three Strikes--the law that mandates life sentences for a third conviction, even if minor and nonviolent, stood on Spring Street Friday morning in front of the downtown Los Angeles offices of … [Read more...]
Youth Reentry from ProbationThe world hasn't changed since Frederick Douglass said, It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Father Greg Boyle has taught us Nothing stops a bullet like a job. As our Probation Department moves in the direction of reform, the good news is that the department recognizes the need for reentry services for kids coming out of the system--often … [Read more...]
Youth on ProbationCivil rights lawyer Connie Rice welcomed new Probation Department chief Donald Blevins to LA Monday night by offering him thanks--and condolences. After all, why would anyone take on the challenge of cleaning up a department long known for abusing rather than helping the kids in its custody, losing track of money and ID badges, punishing whistleblowers and protecting … [Read more...]
As we all know, early in the morning, New Years Day, 2009 on the Fruitdale transit platform in Oakland, BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot an unarmed passenger, Oscar Grant, in the back, killing him. Mehserle (who quit the force after the killing) is now on trial in Los Angeles, the first time in California history that a police officer has been charged with murder for a line-of-duty … [Read more...]
Though the Supreme Court ruled on May 17, that juveniles must not be sentenced to life without parole for any crime short of homicide, we expected no surprise and no mercy when we arrived in court Friday morning for the sentencing of young Tedi Snyder. But Judge Ohta did not hand down the preordained 80-year-to-life-sentence. Not because such a sentence is, in effect, equivalent to life without … [Read more...]
Slum housing has a negative impact on residents' health--even when the building doesn't collapse on top of you while you sleep which is what happened to some tenants of slumlord Frank McHugh. But today, more than 3,000 low-income families enjoy better health and almost as many now live in improved housing thanks to the Healthy Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors Collaborative, a groundbreaking … [Read more...]
"They force you to plead," said the mom who waited outside the courtroom on Thursday. Her son, she explained, was just "standing there" when a bit of teenage mischief went down. The right to a speedy trial turns out to mean nothing when you're a juvenile, even a juvenile being tried as an adult. After almost three years in lockup, with no trial scheduled, her son agreed to plead guilty to get it … [Read more...]
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