For Immediate Release

OAKLAND, Calif. — Two critical youth justice reforms championed by the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) were signed into California law this week, establishing policies that give young people improved opportunities to heal and maintain meaningful connections with the people who love them while reducing unnecessary involvement with the justice system.

On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1886, which effectively ends endless probation for youth, just three days after he signed Assembly Bill 1646, known as the Hug Act due to its focus on allowing youth to maintain physical connection with loved ones while incarcerated. NCYL was a co-sponsor of AB 1886 and advocated for AB 1646 throughout the legislative process, including by providing direct testimony to the Legislature regarding both bills.

“California is showing what it looks like to build a youth justice system that sees young people as whole people with families, relationships, hopes, and futures that matter,” said Dafna Gozani, Legislative and Policy Strategies Director at NCYL. “These new laws move us closer to a system that supports young people’s development rather than unnecessarily prolonging their involvement in it. Young people deserve fair accountability and they deserve to remain connected to the people who help them thrive and not to a system of surveillance that diminishes them.”

Ending endless probation

AB 1886 closes a significant gap in California’s 2025 reform, AB 1376, which established a 12-month limit on non-custodial wardship probation. Under the previous law, that protection did not extend to some youth placed in out-of-home settings, including youth in the foster system, leaving them vulnerable to prolonged probation based on circumstances that may have little to do with their behavior.

AB 1886 removes that exclusion and ensures that youth on non-custodial wardship probation receive clear timelines and developmentally appropriate standards regardless of their housing or placement circumstances. The law also establishes protections around extensions of juvenile court jurisdiction, helping ensure that continued court involvement doesn’t become continued punishment or supervision.

NCYL co-sponsored AB 1886 alongside California Youth Connection, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, Fresh Lifelines for Youth, the W. Haywood Burns Institute, Western Center on Law & Poverty, and other youth-focused organizations.

Charlie Nguyen, a youth justice clerk at NCYL with lived experience in the youth probation system, testified in support of the bill before the California Assembly Committee on Public Safety (his testimony begins around the 30-minute mark of the linked video).

“Having a clear end date for my probation period would have relieved the crushing weight of anxiety that I felt,” he told lawmakers in April. “It would’ve helped alleviate the hopelessness and supported my transition into the community. I would’ve felt like I was being accepted into the community.”

Protecting the power of a hug

AB 1646, the Hug Act, addresses young people’s ability to maintain physical connection with loved ones while they’re confined in a juvenile facility. Such connection can significantly improve a young person’s well-being.

The new law requires youth facilities to allow young people to engage in specified forms of consensual physical contact with visitors during in-person visits, including hugs, embraces, and holding hands, unless a significant safety or security concern exists. Facilities must document such concerns and any resulting limitations on physical contact.

Gozani, representing NCYL, joined families and other youth justice advocates at a March Assembly hearing on public safety to encourage lawmakers to support the bill.

AB 1646 recognizes that a young person’s relationship with a parent, sibling, caregiver, or other loved one doesn’t disappear because they’re confined.

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The National Center for Youth Law centers youth through research, community collaboration, impact litigation, and policy advocacy that fundamentally transforms our nation’s approach to education, health, immigration, foster care, and youth justice. Our vision is a world in which every child thrives and has a full and fair opportunity to achieve the future they envision for themselves.