Kids-for-Cash: Headshot of older female teen with blonde hair wearing dark-framed glasses in front of blurred sign saying "Kids for Cash".

Kids-for-cash judges ordered to pay more than $200M

Two former Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than $200 million to hundreds of people they victimized in one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history.

What happened after Minneapolis removed police officers from schools

By September 2020, 11 new unarmed public safety support specialists, many with law enforcement-related backgrounds, were in place and on the Minneapolis Public Schools payroll. Two years and one pandemic later, initial data and interviews with students and staff suggest that fewer Minneapolis students are being punished and, consequently, missing class for suspensions or other punishment.

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In historic shift, far fewer teens face adult US courts

A significant shift away from the "get tough" philosophy of the 1980s and '90s for youth offenders, has resulted in far fewer children being prosecuted in U.S. adult courts. That has meant second chances for untold thousands of youths.

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JJIE Resource Hub: Federal funds to slash student suspensions; trying adults as children; and other topics

Unspent American Rescue Plan funds to lower the number of students who wind up in the juvenile justice system. The impact of racial disparities resulting from handling children through the adult criminal justice system. Innovative law school partnerships to aid youth simultaneously in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. How children without lawyers fare in immigration proceedings...  Juvenile Justice Resource Hub curates those and other analyses, reviews and research on juvenile justice policy, practice, reform and programs.

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Study: Drug use less common, more deadly among teens during pandemic 

Published today in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association),  Trends in Drug Overdose Deaths Among US Adolescents, January 2010 to June 2021, noted an alarming increase in deaths driven by the widespread presence of illicit fentanyl in the drug supply, particularly in fake prescription opioid and benzodiazepine pills sold illegally. Researchers calculated the results by comparing overdose deaths per 100,000 for teenagers with US death records data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.