Cops & Courts

The state came close to meeting its first court-imposed benchmark for reducing the prison population last week. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, readying its January 10 report to the federal court in the Northern District of California, announced it’s currently operating at 169.2 percent of its designed capacity. That number nearly hits the 167-percent figure the court demanded California meet by December 27, 2011.

In East Oakland, the street economy ranges from selling CDs out of your car to braiding hair at bus stops. But the underground marketplace can be a slippery slope to illegal activity, like selling guns, drugs, and sex.

Child prostitution goes on in America every day and every night ­– despite the efforts of federal, state and local authorities. For more than a year now, Youth Radio has been investigating child sex trafficking in Oakland. It's a system of exploitation that's ensnaring girls across America.

The FBI estimates 100,000 to 300,000 children and youth per year are forced into prostitution. But missing from these types of reports are perspectives from the girls themselves, who are caught up in what's known as "the game.”