In "The Closing of the California Youth Authority" delves into the compelling history, controversial practices, and transformative journey of an institution that once stood as the cornerstone of juvenile justice in California. This meticulously researched book offers an unflinching look at the rise and fall of the California Youth Authority (CYA), providing an insightful narrative on its impact on youth, communities, and the broader criminal justice system. "The Closing of the California Youth Authority" is an essential read for anyone interested in the evolution of juvenile justice, the history of corrections in California, and the ongoing quest for effective and humane approaches to youth rehabilitation. This book chronicles a significant chapter in criminal justice history and sparks crucial conversations about the future of juvenile justice in America.
Raised in a large, loving Irish Catholic family, Valerie O'Connor is a sheltered and innocent young woman who comes of age in the 1950s. When, at age 18, she meets and falls deeply in love with Jack Marsh, a dashing veteran of the Air Force, little does she know that she is about to begin a relationship that is doomed from the start. Their many years of marriage are filled with Jack's drunken rages followed by morning-after remorse, and scenes of escalating violence witnessed by children too terrified to speak out lest they become Jack's next victims. A powerful story of a marriage begun with the best intentions but cursed by a legacy of violence that will have shocking consequences.
The California youth corrections system is undergoing the most sweeping transformation in its 154-year history. The extraordinary nature of this change is revealed by the striking decline in the state’s youth incarceration rate. In 1996, with 10,000 youth confined in 11 state-run correctional facilities, California boasted the nation’s third highest youth incarceration rate. Now, with only 800 youth remaining in a system comprised of just three institutions, California has one of the nation’s lowest youth incarceration rate. How did such unprecedented changes occur and what were the crucial conditions that produced them? Daniel E. Macallair answers these questions through an examination of the California youth corrections system’s origins and evolution, and the patterns and practices that ultimately led to its demise. Beginning in the 19th century, California followed national juvenile justice trends by consigning abused, neglected, and delinquent youth to congregate care institutions known as reform schools. These institutions were characterized by their emphasis on regimentation, rigid structure, and harsh discipline. Behind the walls of these institutions, children and youth, who ranged in age from eight to 21, were subjected to unspeakable cruelties. Despite frequent public outcry, life in California reform schools changed little from the opening of the San Francisco Industrial School in 1859 to the dissolution of the California Youth Authority (CYA) in 2005. By embracing popular national trends at various times, California encapsulates much of the history of youth corrections in the United States. The California story is exceptional since the state often assumed a leadership role in adopting innovative policies intended to improve institutional treatment. The California juvenile justice system stands at the threshold of a new era as it transitions from a 19th century state-centered institutional model to a decentralized structure built around localized services delivered at the county level. After the Doors Were Locked is the first to chronicle the unique history of youth corrections and institutional care in California and analyze the origins of today’s reform efforts. This book offers valuable information and guidance to current and future generations of policy makers, administrators, judges, advocates, students and scholars.
The horrifying true story of the brutal murder of one of Janet Leigh's "body doubles" in Psycho, and another murder a decade later -- committed by a real-life Norman Bates. On June 3, 1988, Myra Davis, 71, one of Janet Leigh's "body doubles" in Psycho, was found dead -- raped and strangled in her Beverly Hills home. Her homicide remained unsolved until investigators linked her killing with that of 60-year-old Jean Orlof, who was sexually assaulted and strangled on March 28, 1998. Police arrested local handyman Kenneth Hunt, who, they believed, like Psycho's Norman Bates, targeted older women for his vicious attacks. With the help of DNA evidence, a jury found him guilty of both murders -- and finally ended his trail of terrifying violence.
The purpose is to lay the foundation for making ourselves aware of the needs and concerns of these individuals. As Christians we must face the fact that aside from seeing and hearing about these individuals, we must do whatever we can to aide them in turning their lives around. We must be willing to meet these individuals in all the areas of their lives, for instance, emotional, intellectual, physical and most importantly spiritually. There are many obstacles that are presented to these troubled individuals on a daily basis. We as Christian soldiers must be willing to step in and fill the void. In addition to God, we must inform them that there is someone and somewhere else they can go to gain the support and strength needed to survive.
From the summer of 1972 through 1975, Kenneth Wooden visited correctional facilities in thirty states where juveniles between the ages of five and sixteen were being held. During his research he uncovered an astoundingly high incidence of emotional and physical abuse, torture, and commercial exploitation of the children by their keepers, individuals who received public funds to care for them. After observing the brutal treatment of these youths, a significant number of whom were not criminals but runaways or mentally disabled, Wooden described the conditions in which these children lived in Weeping in the Playtime of Others.
California spends $400,000,000 annually to incarcerate children as young as twelve years old. Every year, the price of a four year education at Stanford University buys each of these children horrifying physical, sexual, and psychological abuse behind the walls and fences of the California Youth Authority. At the age of nine, a family tragedy split up Dwight Abbott's family, and forced him into the hands of the California Youth Authority. This is the chilling chronicle of his life behind bars—a story of brutality and survival; a dark journey showing how the systematic abuse of incarcerated children creates a cycle of criminal behavior that usually ends with prison or death. – back cover.
In this extraordinary book, Kevin Starr–widely acknowledged as the premier historian of California, the scope of whose scholarship the Atlantic Monthly has called “breathtaking”–probes the possible collapse of the California dream in the years 1990—2003. In a series of compelling chapters, Coast of Dreams moves through a variety of topics that show the California of the last decade, when the state was sometimes stumbling, sometimes humbled, but, more often, flourishing with its usual panache. From gang violence in Los Angeles to the spectacular rise–and equally spectacular fall–of Silicon Valley, from the Northridge earthquake to the recall of Governor Gray Davis, Starr ranges over myriad facts, anecdotes, news stories, personal impressions, and analyses to explore a time of unprecedented upheaval in California. Coast of Dreams describes an exceptional diversity of people, cultures, and values; an economy that mirrors the economic state of the nation; a battlefield where industry and the necessities of infrastructure collide with the inherent demands of a unique and stunning natural environment. It explores California politics (including Arnold Schwarzenegger’s election in the 2003 recall), the multifaceted business landscape, and controversial icons such as O. J. Simpson. “Historians of the future,” Starr writes, “will be able to see with more certainty whether or not the period 1990-2003 was not only the end of one California but the beginning of another”; in the meantime, he gives a picture of the place and time in a book at once sweeping and riveting in its details, deeply informed, engagingly personal, and altogether fascinating.
