Juvenile Justice

Bringing Elias Home: 13-year-old Returns to Family After Immigration Detention

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Submission Post and video by Charisse Domingo

After four months in immigration detention, 13 year old Elias comes home.  After facing charges, he was placed on an immigration hold, and unlike other Bay Area counties, San Mateo enforces detainer requests regardless of age.  But because of his mom’s advocacy and supported by community, Elias is coming home to spend Christmas with his family. 

A longer story on juvenile ICE holds is coming, but we wanted to share with you the moment that Patricia and Elias were reunited at the San Francisco Airport on Wednesday, December 21. 

San Jose Mercury News: Convicted teens appear before peers for sentencing

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Is giving teens the power to convict their peers for the prevention of juvenile recitivism a good idea? You be the judge. -Submission by Cesar Flores

In the painful world of adolescence, often nothing looms larger than what other teens think of you.

Santa Clara County’s fledgling Peer Court hopes to take advantage of that mindset, by placing low-level criminal offenders in front of a jury of their peers.

In the fourth session since its start last month, on Tuesday 12 teen jurors will decide the punishment for a student defendant represented by two teen defenders, facing off against two teen prosecutors. Continue reading →

Juvenile ICE Holds Honored in San Mateo County

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Unlike Santa Clara County that doesn’t honor ICE holds on juveniles, San Mateo County practices the unjust policy of honoring detainers for young people under 18.  At ACJP, we’ve seen families come in with children as young as 12 who have had detainer requests placed on and honored in San Mateo County.  This Sunday, we worked with two families from Redwood City whose children — ages 12 and 13 — both have ICE holds in San Mateo County.  The younger one is so little that the clothes they gave him to wear at the hall don’t even fit him.  This young man thought he just had to agree to the charges and then he could go home.  But when he is released from the hall in mid-September, ICE has 48 hours to pick him up and he has to navigate the world of juvenile immigrant detention alone — a web of group homes, maybe a detention facility, maybe back home to fight his charges if he’s lucky.  It is a policy that is cruel, and the community needs to raise our voices to stop it.  Submission Post by Charisse Domingo

ACJP Organizer Blanca Bosquez Explains Coerced Pleas on Gene Burn’s KGO Radio Show

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Blanca Bosquez

ACJP organizer Blanca Bosquez was on widely listened to 810 KGO’s Gene Burn’s Show on Friday August 19th regarding the criminal justice system. Click here and listen to Blanca respond to Burn’s statement that he would, “Never take a plea if he didn’t commit the crime.” Blanca changes Burn’s position after explaining the coercive nature of the justice system, that there are innocent people that take pleas because of the time that have been incarcerated, and the threat of excessively long sentences. She also speaks to the injustices she witnessed with her own son’s case, who was falsely charged with a crime and coerced during police interrogation as a juvenile. Listen to Blanca break it down from the 33 minute mark to the 38 minute mark. By the end of the conversation, Burn’s says such travesties in the law are “frightening”and that we all “need to be vigilant, since people are so mistreated.” Great job Blanca!

San Jose Mercury News: Law could lighten the sentences of California juvenile offenders serving life without parole

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Up on the line for the California legislature to consider is a bill that would open the possibility for juveniles under 17 serving a sentence of life without parole the opportunity to petition the court for a sentencing rehearing.  It is not a promise of release, like opponents of the bill are saying, but it is a chance.  And it is a step in the right direction.  Submission post by Charisse Domingo

Law could lighten the sentences of California juvenile offenders serving life without parole

by Karen de Sa
8/20/11
San Jose Mercury News

California’s practice of locking teenage offenders in prison for life without the possibility of parole would be upended under legislation just a few votes shy of reaching the governor’s desk — a change that would move the state closer to justice in conservative Texas and every other country in the world.

The bill by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would create a legal pathway but no certainty of release for juvenile offenders who currently have no option but to die behind bars.

Continue reading →

“No One Can Do This Alone” — How a Young Immigrant Family Beat Deportation

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“No One Can Do This Alone” — How a Young Family and a Supporting Community Beat Deportation from DE BUG on Vimeo.

Jeysson Minota, a permanent legal resident, faced deportation, stemming from a vandalism charge due to graffiti. After four years of being in and out of detention, he was able to beat the deportation order, and stay with his family in the US. The following mini-documentary shares the story of how Jeysson, his family, and his supporting community at Silicon Valley De-Bug were able to overcome the odds. Jeysson’s family participated in De-Bug’s Albert Cobarrubias Justice Project — an organizing model that promotes community involvement in the court systems. To read more on Jeysson’s case: sjbeez.org/ ​articles/​2011/​03/​30/​ stopping-deportations-before-they-start-how-advocates-can-better-protect-immigrants-facing-criminal-charges/ ​