Legislation

De-Bug has been involved in shaping California legislation for over 10 years across multiple issues. De-Bug’s approach is bottom up, or as we say in participatory defense, cases to campaigns. This means that we only support, write, or sponsor legislation that comes from the direct experience of families and communities at De-Bug and that will ultimately help their circumstance as well as others in the future who are in similar positions. We do not find people to fit campaigns, we build campaigns from people’s experiences. We do this across systemic and political structures, whether on a hyper local level or on a state legislative level.

 

A great example of De-Bug’s role in passing legislation includes California’s Proposition 57, which passed in 2016. Prop 57 did many things, including creating good time credits for people in state prison to come home early through programs and education, but a huge part of the proposition was stopping the direct-file of youth to be charged as adults in adult court. For nearly 10 years prior to Prop 57, mothers and families came to De-Bug with their children (17 and younger) being automatically moved from Juvenile Court to Adult Court at the discretion of the District Attorney’s office. In the courts, the District Attorneys had the power to do such and it was the burden of the public defender to make arguments as to why the child should be moved back to Juvenile Court, a fruitless effort in most circumstances. It was this experience that repeatedly happened to families at De-Bug that led the question of what we wanted to do to systemically change this practice. This led De-Bug to helping write and co-sponsor the Prop 57 ballot initiative in California that would end the practice of direct file and create what's called a “Transfer Hearing” where the burden of proof is placed on the District Attorney to make their arguments why a child should be charged as an adult. Written into the transfer hearings were all of the intricacies of what families at De-Bug used to speak about -- how their children were too young to understand, their culpability, brain science and others. Those same families whose children were charged and sentenced as adults were outside of grocery stores collecting signatures to get Prop 57 on the ballot, where it eventually passed and is now the law of California. Mothers who come to De-Bug for their children today, although still fighting for the freedom of their children, do not have to with-stand the unjust practice of Direct File.

 

Proposition 57 is just one example of how De-Bug participates in legislative change in California. Before and since then, we have participated and helped shape several bills ranging from issues of gang enhancements, racism in the courts, police violence and others. 

 

Current Legislation De-Bug is supporting:

• AB 572 - 

• AB 1071 - a follow up bill to the Racial Justice Act

• AB 1376 - ending endless youth probation

 

Past: 

• AB 333 - Requires prosecutors to prove the crime to a jury before alleging gang involvement to a jury. This bill stopped the historical practice of prosecutors solely using gang allegations to convict people in trials.

• AB 256 (RJA) - The Racial Justice Act (RJA) allows people to bring forth allegations of court actors (police, judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys) demonstrating racial bias or data driven allegations of racial disparities. The RJA has also become retro-active so those inside prison can bring forth challenges in their already closed cases. Learn more at https://www.rjaction.org/ 

• SB 1421 - Allows the public to do a record request of officers to view disciplinary history and public complaints against officers. For De-Bug families that experienced police violence, this was a huge win being able to identify the patterns of officers. Learn more at https://www.protectyourpeoplesj.org/families-taking-power 

• Prop 57 - De-Bug families advocated for and helped write Prop 57 which had two major components. Prop 57 allowed for mass decarceration efforts by allowing for reduction of time through education and programming inside prison. Prop 57 also ended the unethical practice of Direct File where prosecutors were allowed to charge any youth under the age of 18 as an adult. Prop 57 required that youth have a Transfer Hearing in Juvenile court where factors such as brain development, past traumas and more were considered before deciding if the youth would be sent to adult court.

• SB 1391 - No longer allows District Attorneys to prosecute youth 15 years old or younger as adults.