Sacramento Approves #EquityAndJustice Bills

juvenile_justice_legislation_69072_c0-162-3000-1911_s885x516Just weeks after 25,000 people attended a concert here by artist-musician Common to push for common sense justice reforms, the California Legislature approved the final two bills in the #EquityAndJustice package.

Senate Bills 394 and 395, jointly authored by Sens. Ricardo Lara and Senator Holly J. Mitchell, now go to Gov. Brown, and supporters praised the package for its goal to promote prevention, rehabilitation and maintaining family cohesion.

A video with Common posted on Senator Lara’s Facebook page has received more than 35,000 views. In the video, Common tells a group of formerly incarcerated youth and advocates in Lara’s office: “We care about those that are incarcerated, and we care about our young people that we don’t want to end up being put in prison.”

“California’s laws are still stuck in the past when our courts routinely sentenced young people to life without parole and routinely took away all hope of redemption,” Mitchell said. “We know better now, and these bills are part of our movement toward equity and justice.”
Lara agreed.

“Hearing the stories of young people who confessed to crimes they didn’t commit is heartbreaking and should be a wake-up call for our whole justice system,” he said. “SB 395 protects children and families from the tragedy of false confession and brings our 50-year-old Miranda rights into the 21st century. Young people can take responsibility for their actions and having legal counsel will ensure they understand their rights and uphold our constitutional values in the process.”

SB 394 allows young people sentenced to life without parole to have a parole hearing after 25 years, complying with a recent U.S. Supreme Court case.

SB 395 would require young people to consult with legal counsel before waiving their Miranda rights in a police interrogation. It passed the Senate in May with bipartisan support.

Research shows that young people are much more likely to confess to crimes they didn’t commit, and they are less likely to understand their constitutional rights than adults.

Jerome Dixon is one of those young people when he was arrested at age 17 and interrogated for 25 hours. “On the 25th hour I was nothing more but an empty shell of a child, and I caved in and told them what they wanted to hear,” he told KQED radio. He was recently released after 21 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

SB 395 is co-sponsored by Human Rights Watch, Anti-Recidivism Coalition, Silicon Valley De-Bug, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, and the National Center for Youth Law and has support from the California State PTA, Compton Unified School District, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and nearly 30 civil rights and juvenile justice organizations.

Ray Sotero 

The Actors' Gang

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