[DATE], 2021
 
The Honorable Reginald B. Jones-Sawyer
Chair, Assembly Public Safety
California State Assembly 
Capitol Room 2117
Sacramento, CA 95814

Submitted via Advocate Portal

Re: Assembly Bill 1165 (Gipson)—Tear Gas Ban in Juvenile Facilities—SUPPORT
 
Dear Assemblymember Jones-Sawyer:
 
On behalf of [ORGANIZATION], I write in strong support of Assembly Bill 1165, authored by Assemblymember Mike Gipson. This bill is supported by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia and Assemblymember Luz Rivas as principal co-authors. AB 1165 would prohibit the use or storage of chemical agents in juvenile facilities. 

The use of chemical agents like tear gas has been widely rejected by facility administrators across the country due to physical and emotional harm caused to youth and staff, its detrimental effects on staff-youth relationships, and their experience showing it is unnecessary to protect the safety of youth and staff. California is out of step with fundamental rights, best practices, and a developmentally appropriate vision for how to support our youth. Since the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the United States and California have refocused on the cruel, violent, and racist inequities of policing and incarceration, including unwarranted, inappropriate, and disproportionate uses of tear gas. The widespread and routine use and misuse of these weapons within the confinement of poorly ventilated juvenile facilities is even more egregious.
					
[OPTIONAL: ADD DETAILS ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION AND WHY THIS BILL IS IMPORTANT TO YOU.]

The harmful nature of chemical agents makes their use counterproductive to the rehabilitative goals of the juvenile justice system. Use of chemical agents on youth is inconsistent with the requirement that juvenile halls not be operated as penal institutions and instead “shall be a safe and supportive homelike environment.” Permitting juvenile facility staff to carry and use destructive chemical agents creates a punitive, fear-inducing environment, which impedes the development of trusting, healthy relationships between staff and youth that are essential to facility safety and facilitating successful reentry.

The most common chemical agent used in juvenile facilities is Oleoresin Capsicum, commonly known as “pepper spray.” Pepper spray is so toxic that it is classified in California law as a tear gas weapon. It works by inflaming the respiratory tract and restricting breathing. In juvenile facilities throughout California, this weapon—which can cause not only intense pain but also blistering of the skin, coughing, sneezing, inflammation, respiratory arrest, and an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks—is particularly dangerous for those with cardiovascular or respiratory conditions such as asthma or those using psychotropic medications. A report by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundations of California, based on public record act requests to all 58 counties, found that officials in California juvenile facilities used this weapon more than 5,000 times between January 2015 and March 2018. The number of incidents may be much higher, because 13 counties failed to provide data on how often it was utilized. 

Thirty-five other states and several California counties (Marin, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, and pending in Los Angeles) recognize that chemical agents are not needed to safely operate a facility. Operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the Youth Guidance Center juvenile facility “does not use these potentially dangerous interventions on youth, and should be a model for other juvenile facilities in this regard.” A national survey by the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators observed that facilities that use pepper spray tend to be systems that adopt an overall more punitive and adult-correctional approach. This is consistent with experiences of youth at California juvenile facilities.

Investigations into conditions in juvenile facilities in Kern, San Diego, Fresno, and San Francisco counties found that chemical agents are often directed disproportionately against youth with mental health, behavioral learning, and/or developmental disabilities—including many who are survivors of significant trauma—and constitutes abuse and neglect of these young people. Probation staff have been found to use chemical agents “on youth in response to non-violent acts such as verbal defiance and ‘peer friction,’ for symptoms of mental health needs such as self-injury and threats of self-harm, and in a punitive manner after youth had been restrained.” Staff routinely punish these youth—including with isolation, restraint, and chemical force—for behavior related to their disabilities. Excessive use of chemical agents in turn creates significant liability for counties. 

Eliminating chemical agents from juvenile facilities is also a matter of racial justice. As compared to white youth, African-American youth are 7.5 times more likely to be ordered to institutional placement, and Latinx youth are 2.5 times more likely. The harms of chemical agents in juvenile facilities thus disproportionately impact youth of color, particularly Black, Latinx, and Indigenous youth.

Using chemical agents, which severely impair the respiratory system, is even more dangerous during the current COVID-19 pandemic, given pathological findings that COVID-19 is associated with acute respiratory distress and death. Because physical reactions to chemical agents include intense coughing, sneezing, sputtering, and crying, any use of chemical agents can facilitate the spread of COVID-19 both within the facilities and outside (as infected staff return home to their communities). The COVID-19 pandemic necessitates the elimination of the use of chemical agents in juvenile facilities in order to effectively protect the safety of both youth and staff.

The continued use of chemical agents does not align with creating environments that support the trusting relationships between staff and youth that are essential to promoting healthy and positive growth for young people. For these urgent reasons, [ORGANIZATION] supports AB 1165 to prohibit the use or storage of chemical agents in juvenile facilities. 

Sincerely,

[SIGNATURE BLOCK]

Cc:	Brianna Leon, Office of Assemblymember Mike Gipson via Brianna.Leon@asm.ca.gov
	Wesley Saver, GLIDE via wsaver@glide.org