Our Impact
We believe that all youth are capable of tranformational character change and rehabilitation, regardless of the circumstances that brought them to the criminal legal system.
As the only California organization dedicated to youth defense, CYDC has helped drastically reduce the number of youth transferred to the adult court system.
In 2009, 1,115 California youth were transferred to the adult system.
In 2020, just 25 youth were transferred to adult court in the entire state of California.
Rehabilitation and reintegration into society are most achievable when young people are home with their families, in their communities, and getting support and wrap-around services from people who care about them. Our work is focused on achieving this goal.
We need your help!
CYDC’s vision is that young people in California have access to excellent legal representation, receive fair and equitable treatment in the courts, and be provided with credible, trauma-informed, and community-supported alternatives to incarceration that foster success. We’ve made progress, but we need your help to turn our vision into reality.