Young people should be defined by their best achievements in life, not by their worst mistakes.

Incarcerating children does not work. Our juvenile justice system in the United States is broken and Governor Newsom’s announcement gives me further confidence that we are on the correct path forward in the state of California. His intention to move juvenile justice out of corrections jurisdiction and into the hands of government health and human service providers is a giant stride toward equity and compassion in our treatment of young offenders.

Approximately 60,000 children are currently confined in juvenile detention and correctional facilities in this country, with hundreds of thousands more on probation. Los Angeles County is home to the largest probation department in the nation. Many young people who’ve been confined face a myriad of challenges when they return home, including difficulty re-enrolling in school and finding jobs. Many of these young people are returning to an unstructured or unstable family environment where the household is low-income, the parent(s) are under-employed, at-risk of homelessness and food instability and located in a low-income high-crime community. A high percentage of kids are faced with the usual challenges in their adolescence, as well as having been victims of crime, experienced trauma, gang exposure, health and mental health challenges, substance use disorders and discrimination due to race, ethnicity, sexual/gender orientation and/or immigration status.

When I founded my organization, New Earth, it was with the intention of helping these young people through a mentor-based, creative arts and educational program. We’ve since grown to serve not only incarcerated children in multiple youth detention camps and group homes throughout LA County, but also those in post-release from incarceration – providing a myriad of supportive wrap-around services including case management, charter high school education, job training and placement. Since 2004 we’ve served over 20,000 incarcerated and system-involved kids throughout LA County.

While Governor Newsom’s announcement regarding his intention to further dismantle the current state of Juvenile Justice in California has produced mixed feelings amongst some working in the field, I’m confident that this initiative will open more minds to the reality that incarcerated children are still children and even if they have been criminalized they still deserve support to become productive citizens.

Here are some actions that will ensure that Newsom’s decision will make an impact on systems-involved young people in California:

1. Eliminate the Status Offense as a jail-able offense. A 2015 study within LA County shows that about 80 percent of all arrests were for Status Offenses (or failure to comply with requirements – a slip in GPA or a missed appointment while on probation), misdemeanors and most non-violent felony offenses.

2. Begin to close Juvenile Probation Camps statewide and reinvest those dollars into repurposing the closed facilities into voluntary residential vocational training centers for young people who would otherwise be on track to adult incarceration.

3. Invest in youth development programs provided by strategic community-based organizations that specialize in trauma-informed care approaches.

4. Support county-sponsored diversion efforts between the community and law enforcement.

The breaking down of old systems and definitions of justice and the building of new systems of support and protection for youth provides a huge opportunity – and this is merely the beginning of the conversation.

New Earth is about to embark upon an unprecedented project in LA County – the transformation of a prison into a college. Never before in United States history has this been done. This will be a voluntary residential vocational training center for transition age youth ages 18-25 years old. The former youth detention facility – Camp David Gonzales in Calabasas – will be transformed to create a positive, therapeutic learning environment, developing interpersonal and leadership skills, education and training, and workforce pathways. A culture of healing and thriving will be cultivated, focusing on positive community and vocational transitions forged through safe, open and holistic committed partnerships involving all staff, families and communities.

Newsom stated, “We are committed about ending the juvenile justice system as we know it once and for all.” I whole-heartedly agree.

Harry Grammer is the Founder and President of New Earth. In 2017, Harry was honored as a CNN Hero and in 2018 selected as an inaugural Obama Foundation Fellow. He has dedicated his life to teaching poetry, advocacy and leadership to incarcerated and at-risk youth – you can see his TED Talk here.