Help transform California's youth prisons

Currently, California's Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) spends a whopping $234,000 a year to lock up each youth. One third of the time spent in DJJ is based on "time adds" -- a disciplinary measure that extends a youth's time in prison. Youth stay an average of three years in the DJJ, costing taxpayers more than $700,000 for each youth -- and causing an immeasurable amount of harm to the young people inside. Books Not Bars has teamed up with Assemblymember Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) to sponsor a bill to change this. AB 999 proposes to eliminate time adds and reduce the amount of time youth spend in the DJJ. It will implement an incentive program that would allow youth to go before the parole board earlier, based on good behavior and positive program participation.
The bill has just been introduced and needs all the support it can get. If other Assemblymembers co-sponsor the legislation, it has a much better chance of passing. Click here to ask your Assemblymember to co-sponsor AB 999.Incentives -- not punishment -- have been proven to increase institutional safety and reduce recidivism. Adult prison systems around the country have long used a time-reduction-for good-behavior model, but California's youth prisons do the opposite -- adding time as a disciplinary tool. AB 999 will fix this. Specifically, AB 999 will:
Eliminate the use of time adds as a disciplinary measure and encourage rehabilitative practices -- rather than punitive ones -- to address misconduct.
Implement an incentive program where youth can earn program credits based on their behavior and participation in programs. The program credits will help advance a youth's appearance before the parole board.
In this economic climate, time adds are costly, harmful and just don't make sense. Locking up youth for a long time with no real opportunities for rehabilitation is poor policy and an inefficient use of our money. We need a change. Click here to encourage your Assemblymember to co-sponsor AB 999:http://www.ellabakercenter.org/?p=bnb_cosponsor_ab999