It’s not unusual for Debra Rush to receive a late night phone call from law enforcement agents who have just completed a human trafficking bust and need her help caring for trafficking survivors. When Rush rescues a young survivor from one of these situations, she knows all too well the horrors they’ve endured.
From a young age Alejandra Aguilar understood the links between money and abuse.
A new report from the Prevention Institute, an Oakland-based nonprofit, describes three main ways in which economic security is tied to safe relationships.
One year after securing $37 million in state funding for programs that keep young people out of the criminal justice system, an assemblyman from Los Angeles is seeking to more than double support for the initiative in next year’s budget.
The murder of a Fresno woman by her partner on May 4 is a reminder of the dangers many domestic violence survivors confront when trying to leave a relationship, police and experts said.
A routine outing with her sons changed Rhonda Foster’s life forever, when gunfire killed one of her young children. “It was just a very devastating time. I felt personally so broken.”
Many teen victims do not tell their family or friends about the abuse, in part because they believe violence is “normal” in a relationship. Some fear not being believed or that their abusers will cause more harm to them or their loved ones.
Immigrant detainees in California are confined in prison-like conditions for up to 22 hours a day, while the counties and cities that contract with ICE exercise little or no oversight of local detention facilities, according to a pair of blistering state reports released Tuesday. The reports from state attorney general Xavier Becerra and state auditor Elaine Howle chronicle shoddy medical care and mental health treatment
Spooked by ICE raids in their communities, news of family separations at the border, and anti-immigrant policies from the federal government, undocumented domestic violence survivors are staying with abusers longer and shunning help, often at risk of their lives. Survivors who do come forward also face greater challenges to pursuing safety and stability than in the past.
Hospital stays for victims can run hours to months but during that time the caseworkers—who often come from the same neighborhoods as their clients—listen, talk and link them to assistance.
Although California is spending millions of dollars on rehabilitation programs for prison inmates, there’s little evidence to show those programs are effective, according to a state audit.