Posts Tagged: custody

California must protect unaccompanied immigrant children

Demonstrators at a 2019 protest in San Francisco show photos of immigrant children who died in custody without adequate care. (Photo: Suzette Leg Anthony, via Shutterstock)

by MARIA RAMIU, CINDY LIOU and JACKIE GONZALEZ posted 09.17.2021

OPINION: The California Legislature has taken an important step to protect unaccompanied immigrant children by passing AB 1140, the Unaccompanied Immigrant Children Protections Act. The bill guarantees that unaccompanied migrants cared for in California-licensed residential facilities and homes are safe and have the same rights as all other children in these facilities.

In California, kids in custody targeted by pepper spray

An image of a person using pepper spray. (Photo: Schnoeppl, via Shutterstock)

by SCOTT SORIANO posted 06.10.2019

Pepper spray – classified and regulated as a form of tear gas – was used routinely on thousands of California children housed in state and county juvenile detention facilities, according to a recent report by the ACLU of Southern California.

State urged to take lead in probing police-custody deaths

Demonstrators protesting police conduct at a gathering in Capitol Park, Sacramento, October 2014. (Photo: Rachael Towne)

by SAMANTHA GALLEGOS posted 05.18.2015

An effort is under way to make California the first state in the nation to have its top law enforcement officer independently investigate deaths in police custody, bypassing the prosecutors in California’s 58 counties. Under the plan, the state attorney general would appoint a special prosecutor to direct an investigation when a civilian dies as a result of deadly physical force by a peace officer.