During its pilot period, Los Angeles County’s Family Assistance Program was a welcome help to...
“Gate Money” Bill Would Significantly Increase Assistance for Californians Returning Home From Prison
In California, people leaving prison each receive $200 as a release allowance, known as “gate...
Los Angeles DA George Gascón wrestles with the case of Hannah Tubbs & the complexity of justice reform, as he modifies his ban on trying youth as adults
Gascón admitted that even the best intentioned one-size-fits-all rules don't always work when it...
‘A change in narrative’: Ethnic studies program helps incarcerated youth navigate identity
Nate Tan's students aren’t Zooming in from campus dorms. Instead, they’re taking classes in...
LA County’s Central Juvenile Hall barely dodges hearing by state board as to whether the facility is “suitable” for youth habitation.
Time is nearly up for LA County Probation to clean up its youth jails before the state board lowers...
Unidentified intruder posing as healthcare worker wanders into LA County youth lock-up, takes COVID “swabs” from kids, then exits.
On Saturday, January 29, 2022, an unidentified person managed to enter Los Angeles...
Op-Ed: Tough-on-crime laws and mass incarceration waste tax dollars and don’t make us any safer
Elected prosecutors have been seeking other proactive ways to reform a criminal legal system that...
San Jose, CA, Enacts Nation’s 1st Firearm Insurance Requirement
San Jose, California, has become the first city in the country to require gun owners to have...
Has the LA County Sheriff’s Department gone back to rigged promotions, along with other forms of favoritism & corruption? A new lawsuit says YES.
More than a decade ago, during the corruption-riddled past of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s...
A total of 4 prison staff members have been charged with sexual abuse in a northern CA federal lock-up
This week James Theodore Highhouse, a corrections worker and chaplain, working at FCA Dublin, a...
A call to reform solitary confinement in our nation’s federal prisons
Warehousing COVID sick inmates in solitary means that those who report symptoms are unjustifiably...
As COVID Spikes in CA’s Adult Prisons, COVID cases now triple in youth prisons.
This week we reported on the ongoing COVID spike inside California’s prison facilities, where...
On Monday, Spike in COVID numbers in CA’s prisons produces 2375 new cases, with 1625 of those new cases located in 5 state lock-ups. Two days later the spike went still higher to 3232 with COVID.
In the last few weeks, Americans have watched COVID numbers rise alarmingly as the Omicron variant...
Op-Ed: Meaningful police reform in California starts with training
New Little Hoover Commission report focuses on five ways to improve law enforcement training in...
Pregnant Behind Bars, Part Five: Looking to the Future
At the beginning of this five-part series, we looked at the statistics and history of incarcerating...
Happy Nearly 2022!… And a Request From WitnessLA
Before we leave 2021 behind, we want to quickly remind you of a few of the stories that made up...
Human rights and safety violations reported at two healthcare facilities in California’s prison system
WitnessLA has learned that what are described as “gross safety violations” regarding vaccine...
Thinking of Joan Didion: Dec. 5, 1934 – Dec. 23, 2021
I noticed I was kind of hugging the book, as a child might a stuffed animal, as if the physical...