News
CYDC in the Legislature – 2025-2026 Session – July 2025 Update
CYDC’s Legislative Committee pursues our collective mission to improve outcomes for youth by crafting, sponsoring, and supporting legislation that would better their lives and by opposing legislation that would harm them.
The current legislative session has proven challenging so far for advancing youth justice reforms. CYDC’s primary legislative effort, Senate Bill 824 (Menjivar), which sought …
Nationwide Decline in Youth Incarceration
1/29/25: The New York Times Magazine’s recent article “What Happened When America Emptied Its Youth Prisons” chronicles what it describes as “a remarkable — if largely overlooked — era in the history of America’s juvenile justice system. Between 2000 and 2020, the number of young people incarcerated in the United States declined by …
PJDC Receives the CPBS Collective Grant
1/22/25: In 2024, PJDC was the recipient of a grant to train community violence intervention workers in Los Angeles County as part of the Los Angeles Peer to Peer Learning Academy. Together with Abraham Medina of Organizing Roots, Executive Director Brooke Harris taught eight day-long workshops on improving community safety through effective advocacy in the …
PJDC Sponsored Bill Sb 1161 in effect!
1/6/25: In 2024, Pacific Juvenile Defender Center proudly sponsored Senate Bill 1161 (Senator Josh Becker, 13th District) which made significant improvements to twelve (12) juvenile or juvenile-related statutes, including Welfare and Institutions Code 827, 303, 388, 450, 451, 604, 654.2, 781, 786, 786.5, 800, and Penal Code 851.7.
- PJDC successfully amended WIC 604 to ensure
PJDC Takes a Stand in LA County
12/18/24: PJDC Executive Director Brooke Harris, a Commissioner with the Los Angeles County Probation Oversight Commission, and our powerful community coalition partners are speaking out against the unsuitability of Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. Please take a moment to read these statements in the Los Angeles Times, LAist and WitnessLA. Lo
PJDC Executive Director Brooke Harris gives opening remarks at the OYCR Summit
PJDC Director of Capacity Building and Training Rhyzan Croomes presents at the Gault Center Summit
10/18/24: PJDC Director of Capacity Building and Training, Rhyzan Croomes, presented on Working with Community Experts in Youth Defense at the Gault Center’s Annual Summit in Denver, CO. The training highlighted the value of utilizing community experts whose expertise is tied to lived experience, such as former gang members serving as gang experts. Participants were …
PJDC Welcomes Rhyzan Croomes and Em Steen!
BSCC Finds LA Juvenile Halls “Unsuitable” in Historic First
The Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC), found Los Angeles juvenile halls unsuitable to house young people at its September 16, 2021 meeting. In a unanimous vote, the Board gave the county 60 days from October 1, 2021, to either remediate the violations or remove young people from the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall …
PJDC Executive Director Brooke Harris testifies in Senate on juvenile justice realignment.
View the full agenda for the February 14, 2024 Joint Hearing on Oversight of Juvenile Justice Realignment here.…