COMMONWEAL D E C E M B E R 2 0 19
Compassion at the Border: A 95-Day Pilgrimage p.5 | A Commonweal Community Rooted in Jewish Wisdom p.07 What if the Grid Goes Down? p.08 | A Life of Purpose: An Interview with Rachel Naomi Remen p.10 Challenging Old Taboos: Conversations on Death and Dying p.12 California’s Youth Prison System Gets a New Name and a New Home p.13
COMMONWEAL
Follow us on social media
Health & Healing
for news and current updates on what’s happening at our site and in our programs.
■
Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies
■
Center for Dying and Living
■
Commonweal Cancer Help Program (see p.5)
■
Communitas
■
Foundation for Embodied Medicine
■
Healing Circles
•
Global
•
Houston, Texas
•
Israel
•
Langley, Washington
■
Healing Kitchens Institute
■
Healing Yoga Foundation
■
Kids and Caregivers
■
Natura Institute | Commonweal Garden
@CommonwealBolinas @CommonwealCA
Education & the Arts ■
Center for Creative Community
•
Power of Hope Youth Camp
•
Taproot Gathering (see p.7)
■
Gift of Compassion (see p.10)
■
Integrative Law Institute
■
The New School at Commonweal (see p.11)
■
Regenerative Design Institute
■
Visual Thinking Strategies
Environment & Justice ■
Biomonitoring Resource Center
■
Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE)
■
Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program (see p.13)
■
Health and Environment Action Research Team
■
Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruption Strategies (HEEDS)
■
The Resilience Project (see p.8)
■
SafetyNEST Science
CO N TAC T U S Comments? Reactions? We’d love to hear from you. P.O. Box 316, Bolinas, CA 94924 www.commonweal.org commonweal@commonweal.org Phone: 415.868.0970 • Fax: 415.868.2230 Editors: Kyra Epstein and Diane Blacker • Design: Winking Fish Printed on 100% post consumer waste recycled and 100% chlorine-free processed paper with soy-based inks.
Have an old vehicle sitting around? Our donation web page features a new link that makes donating your car or other vehicle a smooth and easy process. Find out more: www.commonweal.org/support
FROM OUR PRESIDENT
We hope this edition of Commonweal News gives you a taste of what is happening here. Commonweal is stronger than at any previous point in our 43-year history. I’ve come to believe Commonweal is far less an organization than a community of friends, somewhat in the Quaker tradition. The Quakers are an intriguing model for the future of Commonweal. There are only 350,000 adult Quakers worldwide. Half are in Africa. Most of the rest are in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Latin America. Yet with infinitely small numbers, the Quakers have been an active force for good for more than 350 years. They were among the leaders in the abolition of slavery. Today they work in peace, social justice, sustainability, faith relations with other faiths, and more. The Quakers have simple beliefs. They believe that our higher potential comes to each of us in our own way. They gather in silence to hear each other speak their hearts’ truths. They believe that words are not enough and that faith must be enacted in our lives. They are committed to humility, simplicity, frugality, and kindness to all. They have created self-governing Quaker communities around much of the world. And for 350 years they have been refining their practice of how these things work together. Commonweal has yet to complete our first 50 years, but we are on our way and the path ahead looks clear. Our practices resemble Quaker practices. Of course there are many other traditions with these practices. I don’t mean to single out the Quakers. They are simply an example of those who have stayed on the road we are also traveling.
If you are reading this, you are likely part of our community of friends. And our community of friends is the true life breath of Commonweal. It isn’t the organizational structure that matters. It is the community of friends that trusts and supports our work. So I humbly ask you to renew your support for Commonweal—or to support our work for the first time. You can send us a check. You can go to our website and select the program you want to support, or provide precious core support. Giving us sustaining support—a monthly contribution on your credit card—is invaluable. Even $20 a month on your credit card would be very helpful. Including us in your estate planning is also invaluable. Please contact me, Oren Slozberg, or Arlene Allsman if you want to discuss estate planning. Finally, we love contributions of other things of value— real estate, cars, boats, or anything else you find you aren’t using and want to put to creative use. These are hard times. And things are going to get harder. Commonweal is a community of service designed for hard times. Creative, flexible, self-renewing—and nourished by compassion, wisdom, and dedication to the work. So please, renew or begin your support for our work. We truly depend on you. With gratitude to you and our whole community of friends, Michael Lerner Commonweal President
Donate online at Commonweal.org, or use the remit envelope in this newsletter to pay by check or credit card. Recurring contributions are especially welcome.
C O M M O N W E A L December 2019 3
F R O M O U R E X E C U T I V E D I R E C TO R Adaptability and nimbleness are characteristics not usually associated with organizations that have been around for a while. It is fascinating to see how Commonweal has evolved over 43 years into a new kind of organizational being— one that has the capacity to respond to many kinds of compelling and pressing callings. Flexibility has become part of our DNA. Commonweal has demonstrated an amazing ability to expand and pivot to respond to the needs of the world around us. In 2017, for example, when the fires broke out just north of us in Sonoma County, we were able to support Commonweal staffer Amber Faur in turning her house into an emergency supply center for people who lost their homes or workplaces. This summer, when Angela Oh, director of the Commonweal Gift of Compassion program, asked Commonweal to become part of a collaboration to start a school and shelter for migrants at the United States/Mexico border, Commonweal was able, without hesitation, to say yes. Agility is becoming critical as the frequency, severity, and complexity of the challenges facing our local and global communities increase. We are living in a time of “wicked problems”—ones that are difficult to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements
4 C O M M O N W E A L December 2019
that are often difficult to recognize.* In other words, there are no more easy fixes. Climate change, environmental degradation, political dysfunction, and many other vectors form the wickedest problems we could ever have imagined. And so we look for solutions, and we simultaneously look for effective coping strategies, to emerge. We dive into the challenge and immerse ourselves in the conditions. We approach the issue from many directions and dimensions and trust that the right interventions will manifest. The problems around us do not seem solvable, but if we are nimble, we will cope, adapt, and look at the challenges with ever-fresh eyes. Commonweal today is stepping up as issues emerge. We are generating strategies that take into account the demands of justice and equity, the needs of the earth, the needs of the disempowered, the needs and hopes of all life. We will trust the collective strength, cumulative wisdom, and deep nimbleness of this community to lead the way. Oren Slozberg Commonweal Executive Director
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem
Gift of Compassion
Compassion at the Border: A 95-Day Pilgrimage For 95 days this spring, Francisco Ramos Stierle, known as “Pancho,” walked a rambling but “heartmindful” route from Oakland, California, to Tijuana, Mexico. Carrying a flag with an image of the earth on it, he walked more than 600 miles, raising awareness about the critical situation facing immigrants at the Mexican/United States border. “I was asking the question: what is alive, what could amplify love and compassion?” Pancho said. “There is conflict and control at the border, but not compassion. And I was trusting that people of love and compassion would come to the journey.” And they did. Pancho’s pilgrimage— an idea conceived at Commonweal’s Fall Gathering in 2018—touched hearts and minds as he walked, inspiring youth and elders. Some joined him for parts of the long walk; others stopped to watch or offer shelter and food. Still others
from a partner nonprofit organization, ServiceSpace, formed a ground team to support this pilgrimage to create an “overground railroad”—one that honors the sacred act of migration. On his 95th day of walking, Pancho walked the last three miles with a group of people carrying earth flags, figures, and banners of migratory species. One of those walking with him was Commonweal Gift of Compassion program co-director, Angela Oh.
At the border, Pancho climbs the metal turnstile to tie a miniature earth flag amidst the barbed wire.
“When he arrived at the border, there were two lines: one for Mexican citizens and one for “foreigners,” Angela said. “Pancho climbed up on the metal turnstile and tied a miniature earth flag amidst the barbed wire. He refused to pick one of the
Visitor volunteers Vishesh, Tim, and Jane with Pancho and a local volunteer gardener who spends weekends tending the vegetables and flowers at the border in Tijuana.
two citizenship lines, calling himself a ‘citizen of the world.’” “Yes, they don’t know what to do with me,” Pancho agreed. “The Mexican authorities handed me to the U.S. Border Patrol where I was detained for three days. Once I was released in Tijuana, I was introduced to the Foundation Gifting Love (in Spanish, Regalando Amor), to the shelters the church has there for immigrants in Tijuana’s Divine Providence neighborhood.” After seeing the shelter’s great work—as well as the immigrant community’s need for it—both Pancho and Angela joined in the efforts to support it. The result is a collaborative project called “Love
C O M M O N W E A L December 2019 5
At the church sanctuary, the practice of bringing body, mind, and spirit together as one is a teaching that is never too early to share.
and Compassion in Action” (Amor y Compasión en Acción). The two shelters provide spiritual and physical sustenance to those in the process of transition and transformation. The programs rely on principles of kindness, equanimity, and self-awareness in the service of humanity. Right now there are close to 350 migrants and refugees, the vast majority women, children, and teens.
“Most of my biological family lives in the part of the planet we call Mexico City,” Pancho said. “But it doesn’t matter where we are. We need to bloom where we are. We all are citizens of the world.” If you want to help, you can send a donation of money, food, medicine, or other aid. You can help with the delivery of goods. Work crews are always needed as well. To find specific needs, or to make a donation, go to the Gift of Compassion’s website: gocompassion.org.
“The church has been giving everything to these families,” said Angela. “We know that there are resources in the part of the earth we call the United States that we could get to the shelter. We want these shelters to be able to continue treating people as family, and to facilitate collective healing—through yoga, conversation, meditation, and holistic health, the way we work with other groups in our Gift of Compassion program. We want to build a channel to send love and compassion to these immigrants.”
6 C O M M O N W E A L December 2019
The Gift of Compassion program thanks the Whitman Institute and the California Endowment for their generous funding.
Kyra Epstein Commonweal Communications Manager
The Taproot Gathering
A Commonweal Community Rooted in Jewish Wisdom The idea for Taproot arose over a dinner of molé enchiladas in Santa Fé, New Mexico. Adam Horowitz, founder of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, was expressing his desire to access Jewish teachings, practices, and community to support him in his work as a creative activist and organizer. Irwin Keller, spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Shalom in Cotati, California, responded with ideas about teachings that could be offered. Adam countered with a simple, “Let’s do it.” This is the spirit of Taproot. We ask each other to bring our yearnings, our experiences, and our unique gifts to co-create a space for shared learning, spiritual nourishment, and authentic relationship. Taproot is a community rooted in an immersive week of Jewish study, embodied practice, ritual, and heartful discussion. It is designed for activists, artists, and changemakers who wish to tap into their Jewish background as a source of resonance, sustenance, and grounding. In December 2018, we held our second annual five-day retreat where we shared text study,
movement, music, and more to create a sacred learning experience for participants to dip into and emerge refreshed, nourished, and supported. This December, we host our third retreat.
Taproot at its finest might have been most clearly on display on Shabbat morning, after two full days together. Our morning service
The program was initially conceived for people with very limited access to Jewish text and practice. But ultimately, the group that responded to the call was much more diverse Taproot Stewardship Team: Adam Horowitz, Rabbi Diane than anticipated Elliot, David Bronstein, Reb Irwin Keller, Rabbi Eli Herb, in terms of their Rachel Plattus, and Devra Newman. Jewish literacy and practice. There were participants who was co-created and held outdoors, knew no Hebrew and participants with each participant collaborating who were fluent. There were those to design a short ritual, musical who knew no liturgy and some offering, or prayer, with Torah and who were skilled at chanting Torah haftarah readings, and an evening (Hebrew scripture) and haftarah havdalah (prayer marking the end (selections from the Prophets). Ages of the Sabbath) under the stars. ranged from early 20s to 70s, with the There were also spontaneous bursts bulk of participants in their late 20s of joyous song and playfulness. There and early 30s. were songs in Hebrew and English
C O M M O N W E A L December 2019 7
continued and Serbian. There was dancing and storytelling and impromptu theater. The magical container that is Commonweal did its work as well.
H E L P M E TO R E M E M B E R Dear One– Help me to remember the foamy waves when I feel rushed.
As with the first year, much of the learning and relationship building happened between the lines—singing in the sauna, on nature walks, during impromptu dance parties, or watching the sun go down from the Bolinas bluffs, feeding the hunger participants expressed for intergenerational wisdom exchange, accessible prayer and contemplation practice, and a supportive space in which to be joyful, vulnerable, and connected.
Help me to remember the vast stars that fill the night sky when I’ve spent the day between GoogleDocs and my inbox. Help me to remember that I know you when I feel despair and hopelessness with every news headline I read. May this remembering bring to my consciousness a sense of the vast trajectory of human life on this Earth, of Life’s yearning for beauty, for survival, for cooperation beyond our human affairs, focusing on money, political parties, laws, racism. May the memory of your Truth, emblazoned on the wet moss, in the vibration of song, in the sun’s warmth lift me up and give me the courage, strength, and companionship to bring Your world closer to harmony. – Participant, Taproot 2018
Rachel Plattus & Reb Irwin Keller Taproot Stewards
Taproot is supported by generous funding from Germanacos Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, and Barbara Wiener. Find out more at www.commonweal.org/program/c3/taproot.
Commonweal Resilience Project
What if the Grid Goes Down? Several dozen global vectors or stressors have created the “perfect storm” of our time. It is not just climate change and inequality that threaten us. Here I explore another vector, a cyberattack on the energy grid. I make the link between common sense personal emergency preparedness and creating resilient communities.
Imagine that the grid goes down. Ted Koppel, the eminent awardwinning journalist who was the anchor and managing editor of ABC’s Nightline from 1980 to 2005, devoted a book to the subject with the title Lights Out. He is no alarmist.
8 C O M M O N W E A L December 2019
Imagine a blackout lasting not days, but weeks or months. Tens
of millions of people over several states are affected. For those without access to a generator, there is no running water, no sewage, no refrigeration or light. Food and medical supplies are dwindling. Devices we rely on have gone dark. Banks no longer function, looting is widespread, and law and order are being tested as never before.
lasting, solar-powered ham radio will be a key communications link. Common sense personal or family disaster preparedness helps you and your community prepare for a wide range of potential crises. Most of us haven’t even taken the first step. A “Go Bag” if you have to leave immediately. Some cash if you need it. Some food for a few weeks. Keeping your gas tank topped off. There is a deep link between disaster preparedness and community resilience. Community resilience is the most powerful scale to think about. In the crisis age we have entered, we will need resilient communities to survive and to thrive. Think about it. A well-designed attack on just one of the nation’s three electric power grids could cripple much of our infrastructure—and in the age of cyberwarfare, a laptop has become the only necessary weapon... In fact, as a former chief scientist of the NSA reveals, China and Russia have already penetrated the grid. And a cybersecurity advisor to President Obama believes that independent actors—from “hacktivists” to terrorists—have the capability as well. “It’s not a question of if,” says Centcom Commander General Lloyd Austin, “it’s a question of when.”
a long tradition of anticipating the worst. But how, Koppel asks, will ordinary civilians survive?” [From the book’s website]. It doesn’t have to be a cyberattack that takes the grid down. All over the country, the grid is going down with earthquakes, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and more. It is common sense for someone in the neighborhood to have a generator and fuel, or a portable solar-powered generator. If you have solar panels, they will be useless without a battery. If the blackout is regional and
The Commonweal Resilience Project is grateful for funding from The Heinz Endowments, the Barinaga Goodman Fund of West Marin Fund, and the Altman 2011 Charitable Lead Annuity Trust (15K). Find out more about the project at resilienceproject.ngo.
Michael Lerner Commonweal President
In the absence of a government plan, some individuals and communities have taken matters into their own hands...We see the unrivaled disaster preparedness of the Mormon church, with its enormous storehouses, high-tech dairies, orchards, and proprietary trucking company—the fruits of C O M M O N W E A L December 2019 9
Commonweal Cancer Help Program
A Life of Purpose: An Interview with Rachel Naomi Remen Commonweal’s communication manager, Kyra Epstein, speaks with Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, Medical Director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program and Founder of the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness at Commonweal
Kyra: Your grandfather, who was an Orthodox rabbi, seems very present in your writing and your stories. I feel like I know him a little. I’m curious about what your grandfather would have thought about your life’s work. Rachel: My grandfather was a man of another generation, actually another world. He would not have understood the whole concept of “life work.” Grandpa was a mystic, a student of Kabbalah. He thought of things in older ways, according the ancient teachings of Judaism. For him life was not about “work” but about a purpose that is greater than our work and may have little or nothing to do with our daily
work. My grandfather believed that each of us has a holy purpose and that we fulfill this purpose in many ways—through our relationships, our families, our careers, or just on some street corner somewhere. We may fulfill our life purpose simply by something we say to some stranger on a bus. There is an old wisdom story that is told at the time of Rosh Hashanna, the beginning of the Jewish New Year. It’s called The Birthday of the World and it goes like this: in the Beginning there was only the Holy Darkness, the source of life. And then, some time in the history of things, the world as we know it,
Rachel Remen with Michael Lerner and others, in the Commonweal Chapel.
10 C O M M O N W E A L December 2019
the world of a thousand thousand things emerges as a ray of light from the heart of the Holy Darkness. And then, perhaps because this is a Jewish story, there is an accident and the vessels containing the wholeness of the world break open and the wholeness of the world is scattered into billions and billions of sparks of light and wholeness. These sparks of wholeness fall into all things, all people, all institutions, all organizations where they remain deeply hidden until this very day. The whole human race is a response to this accident. We each were born with the capacity to discern the hidden wholeness in all things, all people, all events and institutions. We can nurture it and strengthen it, we can lift it up and make it visible once again and thereby we can restore the world back into its original wholeness. This is a collective task involving all the people who have ever lived, all the people presently alive, and all the people yet to come. We are able to do this not because we are doctors or artists or writers but simply because we are human beings. So we share a collective purpose: we were born to restore the wholeness of the world. You might say that no matter what our “life work” is, we all have a single work.
K: What a beautiful story. R: You know, the collective purpose has a Hebrew name: Tikkun Olam, which translates as the word service. K: Is there anything else written about this? R: Yes and I love it. One of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, writes about this in his book Cat’s Cradle. According to Vonnegut, God has organized the world into working units called Karasses. A Karass is a group of people who have been born to serve one of God’s holy purposes without ever knowing. Their lives and their work may bear no outward relationship to one another. No matter. They serve their holy purpose together perfectly. Vonnegut says that the members of a Karass circle around their holy purpose like electrons circle the nucleus of an atom. Some orbit very close to the nucleus. Others orbit at a great distance. But all are bound to the their holy purpose by spiritual bonds, bonds of the soul. Those who orbit very close to the nucleus may be friends or even a married couple. But most others are total strangers: people whose lives and work seem to bear no relationship to one another, people of all ages who
Rachel Remen at the New School in Sonoma County, California.
speak different languages and have different religions, people who will never meet or have any awareness of one another. Yet their lives fit together perfectly in service to their holy purpose. Vonnegut contrasts this to the Grandfaloon, the way human beings organize the world. The people in a Grandfaloon think they are related to one another but actually have no relationship to one another at all; for example, the Yale class of 2003 or any professional sports team anywhere.
good fortune to meet a member of your Karass, you feel a sort of deep recognition that you cannot explain, a sense of bondedness, a feeling that this other person is truly family. K: Like Commonweal? R: Yes. Just like Commonweal.
K: And the people in a Karass don’t ever know who each other are or even know what the holy purpose they serve together perfectly is? R: Not exactly. According to Vonnegut, should you have the
C O M M O N W E A L December 2019 11
The New School at Commonweal
Challenging Old Taboos: Conversations on Death and Dying Each time we present a New School talk related to death and dying, I am mildly and pleasantly amazed that people actually show up. What are all these people—old, young, in-between—doing here? Thinking and talking about our mortality is not something most humans easily do. It may even be against our nature, and we tend to live in denial until forced to confront it. But that seems to be changing. And that’s a good thing. I’ve spent decades wrestling professionally, personally, and sometimes publicly, with issues surrounding death. At some of the earlier gatherings about death and dying I was involved with, people lamented low turnout, wondering why more didn’t come to hear excellent presentations and warm camaraderie. I reminded attendees that we were at least to some degree “freaks” for even being willing to talk about this stuff. After all, when colleagues and I developed guidelines for “assisted dying” in a medical journal 20 years ago, the New York Times called our work “guidelines for the unthinkable.”
But most wise teachers and spiritual traditions counsel us to think about it. When we began The New School more than a decade ago, we decided to host conversations on this difficult subject. They were popular from the start, so we’ve kept going. Thus, you can look on our New School website’s library, hit the “dying” category, and find more than 20 talks by such luminaries as Frank Ostaseski, Rachel Remen, BJ Miller, Lael Duncan, Sunita Puri, Shodo Harada Roshi, Mark Renneker, Nate Hinerman, and even Ram Dass— physicians, philosophers, ethicists— you name it. And we will have more. During my career, I have seen, for whatever combination of reasons, that death is becoming much more talked about, as if a taboo is dissolving. Sections of bookstores that used to contain only a couple of titles on dying now burst with books. Medical schools are including more training on care of the dying. Advance directives proliferate, allowing patients to specify how they wish to be treated. Progress in the legalization of alternative
One of the first End-of-Life Conversations at The New School took place in 2010 between then-executive director Susan Braun and Mike Witte, MD.
12 C O M M O N W E A L December 2019
methods for pain management—and even psychedelic substances—can be at least partly traced to use and potentials in patients facing mortality. The still relatively new specialty of palliative care is one of the most heartening developments in the field. Hospice care is increasingly seen as a crucial resource. New professions, such as “death doulas,” have arisen. People talk openly about how they want their bodies to be treated after death. In 2019, new concerns around death arise. A looming ecological meltdown forces ever more people to consider that we face growing risk of annihilation. Our healthcare system still stinks in too many ways. Baby boomers, “influencers” that they are, are facing their own demise, and younger people, too, are looking into this final fact of life. For most of us personally, death is still scary, sad, and mysterious, and will remain so to at least some degree. What we do know is that becoming familiar with dying while we are alive can make it less frightening when we actually face it.
Maybe this aspect of impermanence is becoming a bit less isolated, hidden, denied, and feared. Which means that more and more of us are becoming, at least in this respect, freaks. And that is an utterly worthwhile, amazing, valuable goal and gift.
Find all of our podcasts and videos on the topic of death and dying at tns.commonweal.org/tag/dying/.
Steve Helig Host, The New School at Commonweal
The New School was honored to host Shodo Harada Roshi for a series of conversations about death and dying in 2008, 2014, and 2015.
Juvenile Justice Program
California’s Youth Prison System Gets a New Name and a New Home California’s youth prison facilities will no longer be operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation under a reorganization plan launched by Governor Gavin Newsom. Instead, the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) will become the Department of Youth and Community Restoration, tucked inside its new home at the Health and Human Services Agency (HHS). The shift was made official in the budget package signed by Newsom in June. It will be fully effective by July 1, 2020. In his state of the state speech in January, Newsom pledged big reforms
of the California juvenile justice system. Uprooting DJJ from the state’s correctional agency is a key first step. The Governor says in his budget summary that the move “… better aligns California’s approach with its rehabilitative mission and core values—providing traumainformed and developmentally appropriate services in order to support a youth’s return to their community, preventing them from entering the adult system and further enhancing public safety.” The reorganization of DJJ is yet another milestone in the steady de-escalation and downsizing of the
California youth prison system. Back in 1995, the (then-called) California Youth Authority had 10,000 youths locked in a network of 11 large institutions. Ridden with violence, overcrowding, and deplorable conditions, the system was targeted by litigation and law reforms that closed eight institutions and cut the inmate population by 90%. A major link in this chain was the 2007 law (Senate Bill 81) that banned state commitments of youth lacking a serious or violent commitment offense—a law that Commonweal helped to draft and negotiate. Steep drops in youth crime, and rising costs to run DJJ, accelerated
C O M M O N W E A L December 2019 13
continued
10,000
8,000
California Division of Juvenile Justice
9572
Institutional Population 1996-2018 (year end)
7305
6,000
4,000 2990 2,000
with staff moved over from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. There will be a new advisory committee of advocates and juvenile justice professionals to guide the transformation. But the details of how this will play out—what changes will be made inside the walls, how programs will improve, what re-entry services might expand—remain to be seen.
1275 688
661
19 9 19 6 9 19 6 9 19 6 9 20 6 0 19 0 9 19 6 9 19 6 9 19 6 9 20 6 0 19 5 9 19 6 9 19 6 9 19 6 9 20 6 1 19 0 9 19 6 9 19 6 9 19 6 9 20 6 1 19 5 9 19 6 9 20 6 18
0
the downsizing trend. Today there are just 660 juveniles confined in three remaining youth institutions operated by the state. Youth justice advocates continue to call for the complete shutdown of DJJ. They assert that all juvenile offenders, even those with violent crimes, should be handled in local facilities and programs, closer to the communities to which they must eventually return. But county governments and law enforcement groups have opposed total shutdown, citing public safety concerns and the lack of capacity to house these juvenile offenders in many counties. New factors are actually increasing demand for state youth corrections space. In 2016, California voters approved Governor Jerry Brown’s Proposition 57 that stopped prosecutors from “direct filing” juvenile cases in adult court. In 2018, lawmakers banned transfers to adult court for most 14-15 year olds. Youth convicted in adult courts go to state prisons for the full adult term. Cutting these adult court
pathways means that more youth are instead being sent by courts to DJJ, where incarceration cannot last beyond age 25. With these moves, policymakers and voters have upped the stock of DJJ as an alternative for juveniles that would otherwise go to state prison. In some sense, then, the Governor’s decision to move DJJ into Health and Human Services represents a middle-ground approach that keeps the system open while responding to advocate calls for change. In fact, the advocacy community wanted a more aggressive reform package from the Governor—including the eventual transfer of the state’s juvenile caseload to countybased care. Instead, the Governor chose the incremental option of reorganizing state youth corrections to Health and Human Services. The reorganization, as embodied in Senate Bill 94, moves the operation but leaves its structure intact. There are no changes in commitment law, ages of confinement, or release decision-making. The state’s aging youth institutions will stay open,
14 C O M M O N W E A L December 2019
However it plays out, the shift is a full-circle reminder of reforms that Commonweal called for more than 25 years ago when it published The CYA Report, written by Steve Lerner. He spent time in the institutions and proceeded to document a culture of violence and inhumane conditions. The recommendations in The CYA Report included downsizing the institutions and “humanizing” repressive conditions of confinement. The state has long since downsized the institutions. This latest development—the shift of the remaining operation to Health and Human Services— should take us farther down the road of humanizing what’s left of the state youth corrections system. Commonweal’s Juvenile Justice Program thanks The California Endowment and the Annie E. Casey Foundation for their generous support. Find out more at comjj.org.
David Steinhart Director, Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program
W I T H G R AT I T U D E We express our deep gratitude to the following organizations that have supported Commonweal this year: A & A Fund ● AIA Abide in Awareness ● Alberta S. Kimball – Mary L. Anhaltzer Foundation ● AmazonSmile Foundation Annie E. Casey Foundation ● As You Sow ● Association of the Open Mind and Spirit Inc. ● Bay Area Young Survivors ● Benevity Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ● Bolinas People’s Store ● Bolinas Stinson Beach School Foundation ● Bothin Foundation The California Endowment ● The California Wellness Foundation ● Clover Stornetta Farms ● Cocokind ● Communitas Health Compass / Pacific Union Marin Community Fund ● The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word ● Distracted Globe Foundation Earl’s Organic Produce ● The Eaton Family Fund ● Fenwick Foundation ● Fetzer Institute ● Fidelity Charitable ● Futurewell LLC Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center ● The Germanacos Foundation ● INOAR ● Jenifer Altman Foundation ● The John Merck Fund Karsh Family Social Service Center, Inc ● Kenneth Rainin Foundation ● Korein Tillery ● Law Offices of Susan S. Park ● Lloyd Symington Foundation Marin Community Foundation ● Marin Sun Farms ● Matthew London and Sylvia Wen Gaia Fund ● Morning Glory Family Foundation Muriel Murch Full Circle Endowment Fund ● MySafetyNest, Inc ● The Nathan Cummings Foundation ● New Ground Fund ● Pacific Plate Passport Foundation ● Peaceful World Foundation ● RBC Wealth Management ● Riverstyx Foundation San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation ● Santa Fe Community Foundation ● Schwab Charitable Fund Stinson/Bolinas Community Fund ● Straus Family Creamery ● Susan Hammer Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation Three Twins Ice Cream ● Vanguard Charitable ● Wells Fargo Community Support Campaign ● West Marin Fund ● The Whitman Institute
We offer special thanks and gratitude to the following Commonweal Friends for their generous contributions of $100 and above during the last six months. A full list of all of our donors can be found on our website under “About Us.” Mary Abbott Lynda Abdoo Bettye Adams Kathryn Adams Meredith Anderson Thomas Anderson Mary Armour Justine Auchincloss Deborah Baker Robert Baldassano Carol Banquer Corrine Bayley Katherine Beacock Herbert and Tamar Bedolfe Carl and Anna Belline Laura Belzer Patricia Berkov Louise Berner-Holmberg and Michael J. Holmberg Ann Blake Maureen and Joseph Blumenthal Steven Shankara Bookoff Seymour Boorstein Nancy Boyce Bill Braasch Clayton Wayne Breckon Adrea Brier
Tracy Brown Susanne Bruggemann Rita Burgos Paul Buscemi Alison Carlson Andrew Carman Matt Cave Marie Chan Sharon Chew Johnna Cho Min Chun Judith Ciani Shelby Clark John Colla-Negri Barbara Cunningham Kris Curry Larry Daloz Gun Denhart Karin DeSantis Nischala Devi and Bhaskar Deva Patricia Dinner Alex Dorsey Edith Eddy Cathy Edgett Amy Esposito Elizabeth Ferguson Carolyn Ferris
Kovida Fisher Debra Fournier Keri Furtado Sharon Galicia Sandra Garmon Marilyn Goldberg Martha Gomez Sally Gradinger Cynthia Graham Bess Granby Sadja Greenwood Amy Chase Gulden Thordis Gulden Charles and Susan Halpern Jeanne Halpern Jason Hasley Wendy Hawkins Elia Haworth Leslie Hayakawa Angela Helenek Linda Henderson Kathryn Gale Hirano Daniel Hogan Ann Hogle George Glass Hoke Rose Hom Catherine Howard
Marion Hunt Eileen Jackson Richard J. Jackson Bonnie Jones Je Yon Jung Yoon Kang-O’Higgins Jane Kaplan Barbara P. Katz Dana and Doug Kelly Harriet Kossman Larry Kwarsick and Carol McNeil Coleen LeDrew Elgin Matthew Levett Kelly and Diana Lindsay Richard Liroff Don Lloyd Carole MacClennan Jerry Mander Gene Marchi Vanessa Marcotte John Mason Terri Mason Varsha Mathrani William Mayo-Smith Lindsay McDonell Barry John McGee Josephine Merck
Jill Moore Kenneth and Kristen Moore Peter and Anna Marie Morton Lynn Nelsen Angela Eunjin Oh and YingMing Tu Julie Ohnemus Lisa Pai Pradyut Panda Josefina Paredes Margaret Partlow Samir Patel Piltch Survivors Trust Robert Pittman Gary and Jean Pokorny Julie Portelli James Quay Kay Quinn Mem Rippey Fernne Rosenblatt Pamela Schell Patty Schmidt Gretchen Schodde Paula Sheridan Margaret Simonds Jennifer Sivertson Jane and Don Slack Rachelle Sloss
Janet Sollod Trust David Spaw Kathryn Stevens Carol and Bradley Stoll Gwendolyn Stritter James and Rebecca Sundberg Gregory Tarsy Barbara Terao Elizabeth Thomas Barbara Tittle Susie Tompkins Buell Wendy vanden Heuvel Manisha Vaze Benjamin David Vogel Saba Waheed Debra Waterman Marion R. Weber Sharon Weil Nancy Weinstein Canon Western Stephen White Carol Wuebker and several anonymous donors
C O M M O N W E A L December 2019 15
P. O . B o x 3 1 6 Bolinas, CA 94924
S AV E T H E DAT E
Join us
M AY 9, 2020
for the COMMONWEAL OPEN HOUSE!
FRANCES LERNER
After All A Survey of Work from the Last Ten Years Syzygy Oil on oval panel, 6" x 8" Bonnest, cast cement, 17" x 10" x 9" 2015
Lorelai + the Witch Oil on paper on wood panel 8" x 10" x 2" 2007/08
GALLERY
COMMONWEAL
•
NOVEMBER
20
–
JANUARY
9