Every year, thousands of girls and gender-expansive youth are arrested, detained, and placed on probation across the state of California. Recently, efforts to keep girls and gender-expansive youth of color in the community and out of custody have gained momentum, and California is poised to lead the country, showing that ending girls’ incarceration is possible. In March, Vera and YWFC released a first of its kind report on girls' incarceration in California, detailing the scope of girls' incarceration in California and offering a roadmap for county and statewide changes to end girls' incarceration in California. The report offers policymakers, funders, advocates, and communities the data and evidence they need to understand the breadth of girls’ incarceration in California and take steps to fully eliminate it. The analysis shows that it is possible for every county in California to end girls’ incarceration with bold and decisive action. Together, Vera and YWFC are working to realize the vision of fully eliminating the incarceration of girls and gender-expansive youth across the state.
Join this webinar to learnmore about successful efforts to end girls' incarceration currently under way in counties across California as well as Vera and YWFC’s campaign to bring this work statewide by seeding models for county and local-level reform, investing in research, data, and community-led solutions to guide reform efforts, and advancing the policy change necessary to end girls' incarceration in California.
Speakers
Lindsay Rosenthal
Director, Initiative to End Girls' Incarceration, Vera Institute of Justice
Lindsay Rosenthal is the initiative director of Ending Girls’ Incarceration. She leads Vera’s efforts to end the incarceration of girls and gender expansive youth nationwide, by reforming punitive law enforcement practices and creating pathways to sustainable, in-community well-being, safety, and justice.
Previously, Lindsay was a policy and advocacy fellow at the Ms. Foundation for Women. There, she co-authored, The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls' Story, a report exposing girls’ of color widespread incarceration in America as directly resulting from their status as victims of violence. Lindsay began her career working in direct service with girls in Florida’s child welfare and juvenile legal system.
Lindsay served as a technical assistance provider for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s National Girls Initiative and on New York City’s Young Women’s Initiative’s steering committee.
Lindsay holds a BA from Florida International University and an MA from the University of Chicago.
Jamie Schenker
SCG Member
Program Director, The California Wellness Foundation
Jamie N. Schenker is program director at The California Wellness Foundation. She brings over 15 years’ experience in grantmaking, evaluation and organizational learning. She is passionate about supporting social change and racial justice efforts to ensure all people are safe and healthy.
Katherine Lucero
Director, Office of Youth and Community Restoration
Judge Katherine Lucero (ret.) is a visionary and compassionate legal expert in systems that involve families in crisis. Her 22-year background in Family Court, Dependency Court, and the Juvenile Justice Court gives her a broad scope and diverse experience in all facets of how children, youth and families experience court systems. System accountability to support human transformation is at the heart of her leadership. She brings her expertise in trauma informed, therapeutic court systems that are culturally respectful, gender honoring and emphasize healing families to OYCR. She is a national trainer, educator, and speaker on such issues as Judicial Leadership, Domestic Violence and Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice Dual Diagnosis Courts, Dually Involved Youth (DIY) Courts, Family Drug Courts, Collaborative & Trauma Informed Court Systems, and the Disproportionate Impact of the Child Welfare System on Children of Color. She is a published author, is a certified Life Coach, and believes in the resilience of the human spirit based on her own experience with familial addiction. She obtained her B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Davis, and her Juris Doctorate from Syracuse College of Law, and in 2023 was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from San Jose State University.
Trinity Relerford
Community organizer, YWFC
Trinity relerford is a community organizer at the young women’s freedom center.her Pronouns are she/her/hers/
Trinity has been incarcerated, in and out of juvenile facilities over 7 times from the ages of 14-21.
it is her duty to fight for freedom and it is her duty to win.
when she was released from DJJ at the age of 21 YWFC helped her get her life on track from her mental health to her physical health.
She is so grateful she was connected with a community organization that offered her support and opportunities in her community.
now she wants to help young girls ,gender expansive youth and children that are incarcerated and in our community so they can have better opportunities too.
today’s children are tomorrow’s future.
Trinity truly believes that together we can grow and rise as a community to reach our goals and liberate all youth.
