Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/series/los-angeles-bureau/page/3/)
Juvenile justice is a complex issue — one that affects communities in different ways. Understanding this, JJIE is working to extend coverage across the country. The Los Angeles Bureau is part of this effort that contributes in-depth reporting of national interest.
The Los Angeles Bureau is at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Students cover both Los Angeles and much of Southern California.
Seventeen-year-old Ryan Lo sat in a courtroom for the hearing where a judge would decide whether he would be tried as an adult on charges of first-degree murder.
Near a wooden “Death Row” signpost towering in an orange-lit fog, 25 young people huddled together, smiling and laughing.
Alex Sanchez knows the temptations of joining gangs for young Central American immigrants.
Katrina Alston wasn’t trained as a therapist, social worker or anything of that nature when she worked at a Pasadena, California, group home for emotionally troubled teenage girls in the Los Angeles County foster care system. She simply went through a weeklong training process and two weeks of job shadowing.
Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew grew up in the foster care system in Los Angeles, where she lived in 14 different group homes, most of which featured various levels of abuse. Her experience showed her how children, in a system built to protect them, often face life-endangering risks that often go unnoticed by the public.
Moriah Barrett, then 14, woke up to burns on her body one night along with physical evidence that she had been raped. She had been invited to a party the night before by someone she considered a friend.
Luis Zepeda, 19, has gone to juvenile camp three times. His most recent release was after Los Angeles began a new re-entry program designed to steer youths to resources.
“I didn’t get no resources,” Zepeda said. “It was always punish, punish, punish, punish.”
Social workers “look at the delinquency system as having the power to control these [foster] kids. And the control is they get locked up. They think of that as a traditional method of disciplining the kids.”
Michael Nash’s 30-year career as a jurist has mostly been focused on trying to make life better for Los Angeles County’s children. He is about to embark on a new challenge relating to LA’s foster kids: Early next year, he will become the first director of Los Angeles County’s new Office of Child Protection.
“About 50 percent of the patients we get are Latino males,” said Belzer. “Then another 35 to 40 percent are African-American [males]. In Los Angeles, they combine to make about 20 or 25 percent of the total population, so the disparity is very clear.”