Delinquent by Reason of Poverty

With the publication of Michelle Alexander’s provocative book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," our attention has been drawn to the troubling reality that the majority of young African-American men living in our cities are either incarcerated or on probation or parole. As a result of the ill-conceived “War on Drugs,” our communities of color have been decimated, and a vast population has been left unemployable and disenfranchised. Professor Alexander powerfully demonstrates that America’s racial caste system did not end with the outlawing of state-sanctioned segregation but merely reconstituted itself. With the demise of Jim Crow, the criminal justice system now functions as our society’s system of racial control. Yet, there is an important piece of this picture that has been overlooked.

Grant Helps States Respond to Juvenile Delinquency

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)  is offering the State Juvenile Justice Formula and Block Grants Training and Technical Assistance Program. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act allow OJJDP to offer this grant. The programs goals are to provide training and technical assistance to state and local juvenile justice systems and some non profits to respond to juvenile delinquency. It will do this by helping the grantees to plan, establish, operate, coordinate and evaluate delinquency prevention. It also will help fund projects to improve juvenile justice.