On March 26 the JJIE released a new digital magazine featuring 10 stories about juvenile justice, substance abuse, and more.
In 10 articles, the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange’s new digital magazine explores many of the key issues that come to play in youth justice, including mental health, substance abuse and the overrepresentation of kids of color in the system.
The digital magazine, which will be released on Wednesday, March 26, 2014, celebrates JJIE’s fourth year of niche journalism.
JJIE.org is the only entity in the nation that covers juvenile justice every day with professional journalists. Leonard Witt, JJIE’s publisher, says, “The juvenile justice system is broken in many ways. We are providing high quality news, information and commentary for people who have the wherewithal to make sweeping legislative change or on-the-ground change to help make one child’s life better. It is a fulfilling mission.”
Combining video, text and photography, the new digital magazine offers a multimedia picture of the complexities of justice in the nation. In a heart-wrenching video, grown men weep about abuses suffered in detention four decades ago. In one piece, a young woman gives a candid account of her struggle with methamphetamine addiction, including giving up two of her children. In a story from Illinois, a mother attempts to explain the horror of watching her mentally ill 13-year-old son being sent to a detention center 500 miles away from his home.
“You can take a tough subject area like youth justice and if you tell stories that have depth, people will seek them out and learn from them,” John Fleming, JJIE’s editor, says. “We have built a coast-to-coast audience because we believe in solid journalism and practice it every day.”
In addition to its daily journalism, JJIE.org publishes expert op-eds and, on its Bokeh blog, justice-related photo series. And last year, with generous funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, JJIE launched the Juvenile Justice Resource Hub, which provides layers of research, resources, toolkits and expert advice for audience members who want to take a more in-depth look at the issues behind JJIE’s daily journalism.
This special digital magazine is made possible by support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Other JJIE.org funders include the MacArthur, Harnisch, Park and Tow foundations.