Smart Incarceration Case Study

With an understanding of smart decarceration, our team intended to lobby Nigel Sanchez, the Congressional Aide for Congressman Tony Cardenas. After researching several elected officials, our team chose him because he worked under a congressman that supported reforming the outdated juvenile justice systems making him an excellent candidate for our policy. Then we began to set up the meeting, we directly emailed Nigel to set up an appointment to meet with him at the district office. On the day of the meeting, our team started with an overview of the policy paper and our interest in promoting smart decarceration for juveniles. Our interest towards the issues comes from allowing juveniles who committed nonviolent crimes has a second chance at proving themselves with credits to have a new case.

On the day of the lobby our team met with Nigel and had a fifteen minute lobby with him followed by some comments. In the end, Nigel agreed with our understanding of supporting Proposition 57 because the legislation gives juveniles and adults who committed nonviolent crimes a second chance. In addition, Nigel explains that Tony Cardenas has first had experience with gangs growing up. Gang prevention and juvenile justice are a top priority (Juvenile Justice & Safety, 2016). Consequently, he believes that locking the juveniles in camps or prisons allows the government to place fewer responsibilities on these people (N. Sanchez, October 27,