Jeffrey Selbin quoted by FastCompany, November 30, 2018
“Our key finding is that [CBDs] exclude homeless people from public space through aggressive policy advocacy and policing practices,” says Jeff Selbin, the director of the Policy Center and UC Berkeley School of Law, at a press conference in September about the study. “This finding raises important legal—and I would say moral—concerns.”
Stephanie Campos-Bui and Jeffrey Selbin writes an Op-Ed for the DailyCal, November 30, 2018
Under state law, juvenile fees were supposed to help protect the fiscal integrity of counties. According to groundbreaking research conducted by the UC Berkeley School of Law and students from the Public Policy Clinic, the fees harmed youth and families, were often collected unlawfully and generated little net revenue for counties. Because youth of color are disproportionately arrested, detained and punished in the juvenile system, the fees were especially burdensome for families of color.
Erwin Chemerinsky, Jeffrey Selbin, and Susan Gluss quoted by The Daily Californian, Sept. 13, 2017
These fees disproportionately impact families of Black and Latinx children, who represent more than 70 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system, according to Chemerinsky.
Selbin said such fees “undermine both rehabilitation and safety,” which he said are the main goals of the juvenile justice system. Selbin said he believes this is why the bill passed with bipartisan support — 37-3 in the Senate and 57-9 in the Assembly.
The passing of SB 190 in the State Senate and Assembly was a “hard-earned victory for students,” Berkeley Law spokesperson Susan Gluss said in an email.
Jeffrey Selbin and Abbye Atkinson write for The Orange County Register, Aug. 18, 2017
Our research mirrors studies of criminal justice debt in both the adult and juvenile systems, where sociologists and criminologists have found that such debt compounds disadvantage by reducing income, limiting opportunities and increasing recidivism.
Jeffrey Selbin quoted by NBC Bay Area, Oct. 26, 2016
“These fees harm kids and families and they undermine the rehabilitative purpose of the juvenile justice system,” said Jeff Selbin, a law professor at UC Berkeley who studied the effects. The poverty law clinic at the university published an exhaustive analysis of the fees earlier this year.
Jeffrey Selbin, Stephanie Campos-Bui PAC report cited by The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 15, 2016
“The more BIDs there are in a city, the more anti-homeless laws it has on the books,” the researchers found, according to a forthcoming report on the survey.
Jeffrey Selbin quoted by Daily Journal (registration required), Sept. 13, 2016
“It’s a very positive development that cities are beginning to recognize that it is costly and inconvenient to enforce laws against homeless people when at the same time they fail to provide adequate shelter to meet their basic needs,” said Jeffrey Selbin.
Jeffrey Selbin quoted by Los Angeles Times, Sept. 11, 2016
Since then, the U.S. Department of Justice has called on federal courts to adopt the reasoning in the Jones case, but cities often sidestep the issue by enacting bans that cover only specific times of day or locations, said Jeffrey Selbin, director of the Berkeley clinic.
Jeffrey Selbin and Stephanie Campos-Bui in The Daily Californian, August 24, 2015
Faculty director Jeffrey Selbin wanted to address larger, systemic issues that trickle down to many of the clinic’s clients by providing students with opportunities to research and advocate for marginalized communities.
“A lot of people or families with youth involved in the juvenile justice system are more often than not people of color or living in poverty,” Campos-Bui said. “So handing bills over to kids and their parents (make them) stuck with a huge amount of debt.”
Osha Neumann and Jeffrey Selbin quoted in The Berkeley Daily Planet, March 12, 2015
Osha Neumann: “Taken together with existing laws, these ordinances would essentially make it illegal for people who are homeless to have a presence on our streets and sidewalks.”
Jeffrey Selbin: “The evidence from around the state and country is quite clear: criminalizing people who are homeless doesn’t solve any of the underlying causes or conditions of homelessness; in fact, it only makes them worse. It would be inhumane, ineffective and expensive for Berkeley to double down on punitive laws that will only hurt our most vulnerable residents.”