In the News | Leading Edge Fund

San Francisco Vote Seeks to End Youth Incarceration

Next City

Jun 06, 2019

A vote this week by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has put the city on a path to virtually end youth incarceration, the first major city in the United States to do so. Community activists, many of whom were incarcerated as youth, long advocated to eliminate it altogether. But that requires shifting the mindsets […]

The Young Women’s Freedom Center Wants to Shut Down San Francisco’s Juvenile Hall. City Leaders Just Voted to Support Them

Teen Vogue

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Jun 04, 2019

“We work to build personal and collective power so that we can transform the systems that keep us stuck in a cycle of poverty, incarceration, and violence,” says Jessica Nowlan, adding that the Young Women’s Freedom Center’s involvement with getting the Juvenile Hall shut down is “deeply important and part of our structure” to interrogate […]

Youth and SF Board majority back Shamann Walton’s proposal to close Juvenile Hall because ‘all you learn is how to survive in prison’

SF Bayview

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Apr 12, 2019

“We envision a San Francisco where safety does not mean putting youth in cages, and where communities are trusted to have the solutions,” said Jessica Nowlan, executive director of Young Women’s Freedom Center.

Separation at the border follows nation’s pattern of justice — hit women of color hardest

USA Today

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Mar 27, 2019

Op-ed by Gina Clayton-Johnson and Marisa Franco on how women of color bear brunt of mass incarceration crisis. As confinement for group grows, financial burdens and isolation from loved ones remain disproportionate.