By Danielle (Danny) King, Esq. (he/she/they)–
Leveraging NCLR’s long history of policy and advocacy, we saw great wins for LGBTQ youth and youth of color in the CA Legislature this year.
At the heart of NCLR’s work is advocation for LGBTQ and other individuals on the margins—those who are most often overlooked or treated unfairly by the legal system. As part of that commitment to justice and equity for everyone, NCLR engaged in advocacy and support of many child welfare and juvenile justice related bills in the California Legislature this year that were recently signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.
This advocacy is crucial because LGBTQ+ youth and youth of color are disproportionally affected by the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. LGBTQ+ youth make up 35 percent of the youth in foster care—many of whom are children of color. LGBTQ+ youth make up approximately 20% of the youth in juvenile facilities. Of the percentage of LGBTQ+ youth in juvenile facilities, 85% are youth of color.
Throughout our legislative efforts this year, we engaged in legal research, composed advocacy letters, attended virtual hearings, participated in legislative meetings and communications with Assembly and Senate staffers, and conducted social media outreach to encourage support of these bills.
Here are some of the legislative victories that NCLR worked to achieve for LGBTQ+ youth and youth of color in California this year:
This bill will empower youth who are locked up in California to know what their rights are while in juvenile settings such as the right to clean clothing, the right to post-secondary education, and the right to be free from discrimination or harassment based on their race, sexual orientation, and gender identity, among others. NCLR served as a co-sponsor of this bill.
This bill limits the definition of general neglect and provides that a parent’s economic disadvantage not be considered general neglect under the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA) as a step towards addressing the overreporting and over-representation of people of color and low-income families in the child welfare system. NCLR served as a co-sponsor of this bill.
AB-2361: Juveniles: transfer to court of criminal jurisdiction
This bill requires juvenile courts to make a finding that a youth is not amenable to the rehabilitation of the juvenile court before they can transfer a youth to the adult criminal court system and improves the standard for the Court of Appeal when reviewing juvenile court transfer decisions.
AB-2644: Youth Custodial interrogation
This bill prohibits threats, physical harm, and deceptive interrogation practices by law enforcement to be used against youth (including prohibiting psychologically manipulative interrogation tactics). With the passage of this legislation, it makes California the third state (behind Illinois and Oregon) to ban deceptive tactics in juvenile interrogation.
AB 2658: Youth Electronic Monitoring
This bill provides custody credits for time youth spend on electronic monitoring (EM) and requires more frequent court review of youth being monitored, which will allow these youth to get their EMs removed faster and their terms of punishment to end sooner. This bill also allows for collection of data that will be crucial in addressing racial justice disparities in the juvenile justice system.
This bill gives much needed guidance on how California courts can exercise their discretion to dismiss Juvenile Delinquency petitions in the interest of justice and welfare of the person.
Danielle (Danny) King, Esq., is the Senior Youth Policy Counsel at the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
Published on November 3, 2022
Recent Comments