When I was younger, I couldn’t imagine a future for myself beyond going to prison or dying young.
But today, I am a college graduate and a senior policy advocate for the Vera Institute of Justice’s California team, where we promote the end of mass incarceration, protection of immigrant communities and racial justice.
What changed my life?
Instead of being incarcerated after my last arrest, I was granted diversion. Diversion programs keep people in their communities while they work through hours of behavioral health programs, job training and other supportive structures to break the cycle of incarceration.
I first encountered the justice system as a child, when a family member was investigated for sexually abusing children in my family. I had heard a detective was looking for me and, though I was one of the victims, I thought I was in trouble.
On television we see child victims get escorted to a safe place, connected with therapists or social workers and treated with dignity and respect.
In real life, I got a phone call from a detective. The police treated me like I had been the perpetrator, and I was terrified. I wasn’t seen as a victim. I was never offered any services or support. The experience — both the abuse and the investigation — haunted me and consumed my life.
My family and I were stuck in a dangerous cycle. My father was in prison most of my life. My brother soon followed as one of the first young people sentenced to life in prison under Prop 21, which sent many juvenile offenders to adult court.
I ended up in a similar lifestyle. When I was 12, my boyfriend was attacked by a rival gang outside a 7-Eleven. He died in my arms on the way to the hospital.
Traumatized and depressed, I couldn’t get out of bed or make it to classes. My school decided the best way to solve my truancy was to have me arrested. I was ushered onto the school-to-prison pipeline instead of being offered an off-ramp.
I was in and out of jail sometimes on gang-related charges. But my last arrest was different. A judge and a public defender saw in me the capacity to grow and change.
I was enrolled in a six-month, adult school office technology program. I worked overtime to complete it in a month. It became my foundation for higher education, meaningful employment and a deeper engagement with my community.
It led me to community college, where I got a 4.0 my first semester. I got into UC Berkeley with a full ride as a Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholar, and now I have a career advocating for other women like me.
There are many of us survivors on the streets and in California’s jails and prisons who’ve been presented with little opportunity beyond incarceration or death. More need the chance I was granted.
They want to stop the harm they suffered from happening again. If we give them an opportunity for redemption and hold each other accountable for change, we can create a future of safety, justice and hope.
Research shows diversion programs cut reoffending rates in half.
California could take a step forward on that path with Assembly Bill 1231. The bill would allow people charged with nonviolent felonies to get help through diversion programs, where they’d be accountable to the court and to themselves to build a different life.
Written in close collaboration with survivors, it would allow judges to weigh mitigating factors for people surviving domestic violence, sexual assault or human trafficking and to develop diversion plans to help them change their lives, support their families and pay restitution to those they’ve harmed.
But the bill has drawn opposition from those in law enforcement who see punishment as the only tool to address our crime problems.
Punishment is not prevention, and prison is not a path forward.
Every Californian deserves a chance to become better. We can keep each other safe and better ourselves and our communities, instead of resigning ourselves to violence, crime and a bleak future.
Claudia Gonzalez is a senior program associate for the Vera Institute of Justice’s Vera California program. She wrote this commentary for CalMatters.
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