Fresno County is blocking public input for juvenile justice meetings, lawsuit alleges
A Fresno nonprofit recently filed a lawsuit against Fresno County and others, saying the processes local officials are using for juvenile justice realignment are violating open meetings laws and squeezing out public input.
California will be closing its state juvenile facilities and realigning juvenile justice responsibilities to the jurisdiction of the counties after the passing of Senate Bill 823 in 2020. Fresno and all the counties across the state are working on the same issue.
The Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council and the Realignment Subcommittee in Fresno County are in charge of planning and meetings during the transition. They are named in the lawsuit with Fresno County and county Probation Chief Kirk Haynes.
The Fresno nonprofit Center for Leadership, Equity, and Research (or CLEAR) filed a petition last week to the Fresno County Superior Court through the law firm Baker McKenzie and the Youth Law Center.
The petition asks the court to intercede and enforce the Brown Act, the legal standard that requires open meetings in specific decision-making bodies. The nonprofit challenges inequity, according to Ken Magdaleno, the founder and executive director of CLEAR.
“As long as Fresno County’s juvenile justice planning is conducted behind closed doors, our community members will believe that their participation is unwelcome and unimportant,” he said in a prepared statement. “By bringing this case, we hope to open up the planning process and make sure that community voices can be heard.”
The idea behind realignment is to lower the chances that someone under 18 will be separated from a stable family environment for an extended time and reduce the likelihood they’ll become a repeat offender, according to supporters of realignment.
California is set to spend more than $200 million in the state realignment effort by 2024. In the first three years, Fresno County is expected to get nearly $14 million, according to advocates.
Officials with Fresno County say the nonprofit is misunderstanding the local realignment plans, according to Sonja Dosti, the spokesperson for Fresno County. She said the public meetings are coming.
“While not actually required by the enacting statutes, Fresno County does intend to hold several more Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council subcommittee meetings prior to the January 1, 2022 deadline for the final adoption of the Juvenile Justice Realignment Plan with full Brown Act noticing and procedures in place,” she said in an email.
The lawsuit claims the committee has already acted poorly by not making the right meetings public. Transparency in the process is important, according to Meredith Desautels, a staff attorney with the Youth Law Center.
“By failing to hold open and public meetings, Fresno County is making important juvenile justice policy decisions without community input, oversight or transparency,” she said. “This case is aimed solely at ensuring public access and participation in the realignment planning process in Fresno County.”
The county still has some time to answer the lawsuit with a legal briefing so no court hearing has been set.
