California New Law – Incarcerated Juveniles Can Receive Psychological Counseling

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a new bill that further expands the current “Youth Rights Law,” aimed at ensuring the safety and equal treatment of incarcerated youth in California.

The Senate bill SB1353, drafted by Democratic Senator Aisha Wahab, was signed on July 18. The bill unanimously passed the State Assembly in June and also received a unanimous vote in the State Senate in July.

In her statement on July 18, Wahab said, “In order to help youth rehabilitate and prevent reoffending, we must focus on both their behavioral health and mental well-being.”

The current “Youth Rights Law” guarantees incarcerated youth a safe living environment, adequate healthy meals and snacks, protection from physical, sexual, and emotional abuse or punishment, and the right to healthcare. The new law revises relevant guidelines to ensure youth have access to behavioral health services, such as prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of substance use disorders and stressors and crises in life.

Wahab’s expansion bill will enable incarcerated youth to have access to therapists, mentors, counselors, and other behavioral therapy services. She mentioned in her statement that youth often find themselves with treatable behavioral disorders during their confinement. Failing to address these conditions in a timely manner, she pointed out, “result in their incarceration.”

The “Youth Rights Law,” passed in 2022, mentions that this law protects the basic rights of youth detained in any facility in California. Previously, these rights only applied to youth in facilities under the Department of Juvenile Justice for Discipline and Rehabilitation, which specifically housed juveniles involved in serious crimes in California and ceased operations in 2023.