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Articles, information and additional online resources. |
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Voices from the Trenches
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Rachel Jackson, state field director of the Books Not Bars campaign, coordinated Bay Area activism among youth, human rights advocates and residents to reverse a plan for a new and significantly larger juvenile detention center for Alameda County in Dublin, California. |
Jackson on lessons learned:
"We've always said, ‘books not bars, schools not jails.’ What we need is schools in our communities. What we need is parks in our communities, youth services and super services, not super jails. Our opposition to the [proposed Alameda County] 540-bed juvenile hall and the juvenile justice complex has been that it's too big, too far away, and it's a waste of county resources that need to be used in other ways. And what we've wanted is the facility to be replaced, but it needs to have a minimum number of beds and a maximum number of detention alternatives. And when [coalition members] raised our concerns with the full California Board of Corrections [overseeing the funding of the plan], the board voted almost unanimously to fund the replacement but not to fund the expansion. To see people feel the sort of David and Goliath scenario was inspiring. You know, they say you can't fight city hall, but you can."
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