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At-risk youth, senior volunteers team up on the basketball court
Respect, teamwork are some of the lessons learned by students during the weekly games

From Gilroy Life

A typical high school basketball game pulses with energy. The ball thuds against the backboard, echoing throughout the gym. Shoes squeak against the shiny wooden floors as players and officials sprint the length of the court. The gentle swish of the ball passing through the net is met with the muffled clap of random high-fives and boisterous cheers from the audience.

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Humboldt County’s chief probation officer Bill Damiano to retire

From Eureka Times-Standard

Humboldt County’s Chief Probation Officer Bill Damiano is set to retire on April 13, with the Board of Supervisors voting Tuesday to appoint his assistant Shaun Brenneman to the post on an interim basis.

Damiano, who has served as chief probation officer since 2010 and has more than 29 years experience working for probation, informed the board of his plans to retire in late 2017.

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San Rafael boxing program offers ‘pro-social’ impact

From Marin Independent Journal

As would be expected a month before a professional boxing fight, Iris Contreras found herself in a gym, boxing.

But Contreras, 20, one of just two Latina professional boxers in Northern California, wasn’t working on her own form but instead working with dozens of young people — including several women — as part of the new Canal Friday Night Boxing program.

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Program Helps Reduce Recidivism In Criminals
The Butte County Probation Department's 'Male Community Rehabilitation Program' in Oroville works to reduce the tendency of convicted criminals to reoffend.

From Action News Now

The Butte County Probation Department’s ‘Male Community Rehabilitation Program’ in Oroville works to reduce the tendency of convicted criminals to reoffend.

Last month the state gave the program $399,300 to fund the alcohol and drug treatment services, allowing 20 additional participants and 2 new officers.

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Girls in Detention Find Encouragement Through Running Club

From County News Center

Ten teenage girls wearing matching purple T-shirts and Nike sneakers run around and around a small interior recreational yard, marking their hands with a highlighter pen for each lap. Twenty- seven laps is a 5K – the length of the race they plan to run in this Sunday.

“You can do it, keep going,” someone says when one slows to walk.

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‘It’s pretty cool.’ Parents of juvenile offenders see their kids’ art in the courthouse

From the Sacramento Bee

There are two large, glass display cases to the right when you walk through the Sacramento County Juvenile Court. One features a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. constructed from colorful, handmade paper squares. The other has woodwork pieces, including two birdhouses, a small Christmas tree, and a snowman painted white sporting a top hat and red bow tie.

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Can the Design of L.A.’s New Juvenile Detention Facility Change the Future of Youth Incarceration?
Malibu’s Campus Kilpatrick detention facility aims to be a national model for juvenile justice through a humanizing architecture.

From Metropolis -  

Overlooking Malibu, in the midst of the Santa Monica Mountains’ vineyard-dotted landscape, lies Los Angeles County’s $48 million wager on the future of youth incarceration.

Campus Kilpatrick opened its doors in July, replacing a 1960s complex known as Camp Vernon Kilpatrick. California lawmakers voted to allocate County funds to demolish and rebuild the dilapidated detention facility and its harsh, barracks-style quarters.

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California may up its rehab efforts to keep ex-inmates from returning to prison
January 24, 2018

From CALmatters

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to add millions in new spending on programs to help former inmates stay out of jail—a proposal generating bipartisan praise because of concern they are returning to prison in large numbers. But some say it still isn’t enough.

The proposed $50 million would expand job training for prisoners and assist them in finding jobs once they are released, such as training them to become firefighters.

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Criminal justice reform is working
December 22, 2017

From the Press Enterprise

Over the past several years, California has dramatically reduced the prison population, given hundreds of thousands of people the opportunity to live a better life free from the burden of a felony record for low-level offenses and freed up hundreds of millions of dollars for crime prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.