Several new laws that take affect in 2020 will affect the criminal justice system and those who come in contact with it. Social workers and probation officers will be required to give children who are in foster care two weeks notice if the foster parents have requested a placement change. Adults who have survived sexual abuse as a child will be allowed to file a lawsuit up until they are 40 years old, or even later, if they can connect the abuse to a psychological injury or illness in the last five years. And as of January 1, private prisons and immigration detention centers will no longer be allowed to sign or renew contracts with the state. The goal is to abolish private prisons and detention centers by 2028. And employers, co-workers, and teachers who fear someone will harm themselves or others can get a restraining order for gun violence. This will allow law enforcement officers to take away a person’s guns.
Reporter Ernest Figueroa has more about new laws affecting education in California…
Dreamers—young, undocumented residents who were brought to the U.S. as children—who want to get a graduate degree from a public university in California will be eligible for student loans and in-state tuition. Parents can decide if their children can take medical marijuana on a school campus. Students must have a doctor’s prescription, and the marijuana can’t be stored on the school campus.
