Youth prisons

===California Youth Prisons===
====Help Us Close California's Youth Prisons====
Books Not Bars fights to redirect California's resources away from youth incarceration and towards youth opportunities. We engage in grassroots campaigns using media advocacy, policy advocacy, grassroots organizing, and alliance building.
Currently, we are working to close California's abusive, expensive youth prisons and replace them with rehabilitation centers and community-based programs.
=====Victory: Two Youth Prisons Will Close in 2008=====
California's youth prison system will shut down prisons for the first time in 4 years! The Division of Juvenile Justice announced at the very start of 2008 that El Paso de Robles and Dewitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facilities will close by July 31 this year.
Located in Paso Robles, El Paso de Robles is one of the most remote of the state's eight youth prisons, and holds about 150 young men. This facility recently made headlines for its accidental use of overly potent tear gas on the youth. Dewitt Nelson, one of three Stockton youth prisons, holds 260 youth. All of the youth will be transferred to other DJJ prisons -- and we'll work to make sure they're close to their families in the process.