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AuthorDebra Mendoza has been intimately connected to the youth in the Bay Area for over fifteen years in her role as a Juvenile Probation Officer and Oakland public school Teacher. An Alameda County Probation Officer for ten years, in this capacity Debra served as a Court Officer in every Delinquent Court, supervised youth released to the community, and conducted hundreds of in-depth investigations and social studies for youth involved in high-profile cases, such as homicide, rape, carjacking and armed robbery. Debra has worked as a consultant for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights around prison reform and organizing families of incarcerated youth, as well as providing alternative sentencing options for private and Court appointed attorneys in contested sentencing cases. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduated in Spring 2011 from the Violence Prevention Strategies Program at Peralta College. Debra is a long-standing member of the OUSD Interagency Gang Prevention Collaborative, who credit themselves with developing the district gang prevention and intervention handbook and making policy recommendations to the city of Oakland. A mother of two school-aged children, Debra believes is is imperative that we examine our systems through a racial and socio-economic lens, so that we can begin to make the sweeping changes necessary to reform our criminal justice system, protect our most vulnerable populations, and develop our communities to be increasingly safe, healthy, and thriving for all members. Archives
September 2013
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