Youth Reinvestment Grant (2019)

California Budget

Location

California

California took meaningful action in 2018 to affirm the idea that youth need care, not cages by committing a one-time expenditure of $37.3 million dollars to create the Youth Reinvestment Grant distributed over a three-year period to improve outcomes for youth accused of low-level or status offenses by increasing the availability of trauma-informed, and community and health-based interventions in lieu of arrest and incarceration.

We know that focusing on rehabilitation and positive youth development isn't just good public policy but it also saves taxpayers dollars. Research on youth development and juvenile justice has proven that the most effective approaches that lead to healthy outcomes for youth and improve public safety are best achieved when mental health services and community-based programs are provided to youth in conflict with the law in lieu of arrest. Incarceration can have lifelong consequences on a young person and lead them to be more likely to become a high school dropout and more likely to be chronically unemployed.

The principle on which the Youth Reinvestment Grant is founded, an emphasis on health and wellbeing, also seeks to address the over-representation of low-income children and youth of color in the juvenile justice system by instead providing all children accused of low-level and status offenses trauma-informed and age-appropriate services that are delivered through community-based organizations focused on treating their underlying needs.

NCYL is asking the California legislature to include an increased investment of $100 million in the 2019 budget to continue this health and wellbeing approach and enhance the existing infrastructure to increase the capacity of community-based organizations to provide these health-based services all youth in under-served communities accused of low-level offenses. #CareNotCages #YouthReinvestment