Youth protest pepper spray use at Alameda County juvenile hall

OAKLAND, Calif. - Youth leaders held a rally outside the Alameda County Administration Building on Tuesday to protest the use of chemical sprays against children in juvenile hall.

Protest against pepper spray

What they're saying:

Organized by the Urban Peace Movement, activists called on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to ban all forms of pepper spray in juvenile facilities and shift toward trauma-informed de-escalation tactics.

Currently, pepper spray use in juvenile halls is banned in all but three Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa and Sonoma counties. 

The youth at the rally characterized the practice as inhumane, stating that chemical agents undermine the core rehabilitation efforts those facilities are meant to foster.

"Alameda County thinks that the use of pepper spray in our juvenile halls is protecting our community and serving our youth," said a young man named Narayan, a member of Urban Peace Movement. "I'm here to tell you that the complete opposite is happening. Let me tell you what this pepper spray actually does to a kid. These kids' way of describing what it feels like is as if their lungs are collapsing on them, like their faces were on fire, like they can't even control their body no more."

Big picture view:

While several states maintain bans or strict limitations on chemical agents in juvenile detention centers, previous attempts to enact similar restrictions statewide in California failed when a 2022 bill died before reaching the State Senate.

Efforts to reach Alameda County officials for comment were not immediately returned.