The Free Our Kids Coalition was created in response to the proposed $75 million, 100-120 bed facility by Alameda County. The effort to construct a new Camp Sweeney and demolish the current one dates back to 2008 when probation successfully applied for a grant from the BSCC and was later approved for an additional 54 million in 2013 by the Board of Supervisors. Probations justification for this project is that the current facility sits on a fault line susceptible to landslides. Probation also contends that they want to enhance vocational programming and increase bed capacity to house boys and girls. In June 2019, a coalition of several local nonprofit organizations (Free Our Kids) came together for their first gathering to strategize on ways to disrupt the construction process for Camp Sweeney.​

 

Free Our Kids is calling on the County of Alameda to move past the existing ineffective and traumatic punitive system in favor of a care-centered approach to youth justice that strives to support and rehabilitate our kids rather than punish them. Free Our Kids believes the time is now to reimagine a new model for youth justice in Alameda County based on principles of health, equity, and community.

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