plea bargain: Trial and plea bargain as a choice - pictured as words on 2 doors

Opinion: Apply Brain Science to Plea Bargains For Developmentally Informed Approach

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Imagine being 16 years old, arrested and charged with a crime after getting into trouble with a friend. You will remain locked up until your hearing. You haven’t spoken to anyone about what's going on. Eventually, you meet your attorney 45 minutes before court and he says the prosecutor wants to offer you a deal. If you admit guilt, your punishment will be lighter than if you are found guilty in juvenile court. 

You ask if you can have time to think and talk to your mom but the attorney says you  must decide quickly because your hearing starts in 30 minutes.

Fordable Fundraising Board Members: 4 people sitting around conference table

Five Ways to Foster Long-lasting Board Engagement

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Running a youth-centered nonprofit has many unique challenges, but an engaged and invested board should not be one of them. If one of your biggest problems in running your organization is engaging your board members in fundraising, this article is for you. Here at Fordable Fundraising, we have found that incorporating these five practices reduces revolving door syndrome and encourages board members to engage in fundraising more deeply:
1: Define Each Board Member’s Role
Whether you have board members already or you are looking to onboard new members, defining board members’ roles based on their positions and key strengths will provide a solid foundation of executive support to meet initiatives. This can be as simple as a one-page job description or a detailed summary of this role. Having your board members be part of this conversation can lead to more buy-in and better outcomes overall.

lead poisoning: Video screen with text and red play arrow

Florida Attorney Believes Lead Poisoning Is Partial Explanation For Low-income Neighborhood Crimes

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VIDEOGRAPHER: JACOB LANGSTON
JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Teri Sopp’s former self stares down from a wall in Florida’s Fourth Judicial Circuit Public Defender’s Office. The painting, a gift more than a dozen years ago, bears silent witness as she works to free people also frozen in time, serving lifelong sentences for crimes committed before they turned 18. For one client, she’s arguing reduced culpability because of lead. She expects to argue the same for other clients. Sopp is the director of the resentencing project for juveniles serving life without parole.

resentencing: The father holds the wand and is hitting the son with it, vintage color tone

Abused, Often Homeless, Florida Man Got 2 Life Sentences At 17

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JACKSONVILLE, Florida — In the decades after the civil rights era, Black communities in Jacksonville remained disproportionately impoverished, blighted and policed. Some activists would say this continues to present day. This was the world in which John grew up. Born in the 1970s, John’s childhood was characterized by instability, neglect and abuse. John (a pseudonym) had lived in two dozen homes by the time he moved out.

community-based alternatives: Male High School Basketball Team Playing Game

Opinion: Diverting Youth From Justice Systems Is Key to Racial Equity

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An often overlooked but major injustice is how our juvenile justice system impacts Black and Hispanic youth and their families, limiting their ability to reach their full potential and thrive in their communities. In fact, the disparities are so bad that a recent Marshall Project article noted that “though the racial inequality in youth detention has long been stark, it's wider than ever.” 

Tookie: Man of color with dark hair, beard, mustache sitting on bench looking to the left

Opinion: ‘Tookie’ Williams Proved Anyone Could Evolve From Violent to Anti-gang

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“I'm learning to ‘master self’ while rising from the ashes of madness.” ―Stanley “Tookie” Williams, “Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir” 

The day that Stanley “Tookie” Williams was executed, I was working in the library at a juvenile court school in California. The students and I had talked this over for several months before the scheduled execution. Some of us felt a huge loss at the impending death of Tookie, as he was often called. 

The day after he died, the library was filled with grieving students. Many saw Tookie as a hero for making such huge changes during his prison term on death row. We had a service of sorts in the library to commemorate his life and his achievements that brought more peace to this world.

restorative justice: The phrase "Reparations for black community " on a banner in men's hand with blurred background.

Opinion: Restorative Justice Is Used to Legitimize Oppressive Systems

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Imagine building a house on unstable ground and then only working to address the cracks in the walls, uneven floors and leaking roof, all symptoms of a faulty foundation. Many contractors would find this unreasonable, if not dangerous. 

Yet that is essentially what we have done in the United States. After having built our nation's house on unstable ground, we have stubbornly clung to the irrational idea that all we need to do is fix the resulting, cosmetic issues. In doing so, we have begun to use restorative justice as one of those "easy fixes," to the detriment of both the practice and the communities asked to participate in it. The practices and approaches the Western world today refers to as “restorative justice” have roots in indigenous, including indigenous African, peacemaking and ways of being in community.

Virginia: Martinsville. Virginia on a map

Opinion: Pardoning Martinsville 7 Would Be a Start to Acknowledging Virginia’s History

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I’ve experienced the racial disparities and harsh retribution of the Virginia criminal legal system firsthand. I join the call for Gov. Ralph Northam to pardon the Martinsville 7 posthumously as a small but important way to begin the process of acknowledging the unfair and racist treatment of Black people in the Virginia legal system.

police brutality: Man of color holds sign that says stop police brutality. Adhesive tape covers his lips. Red and blue smoke in background

Opinion: Police Were Enemies Of Homeboys In California Town

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In the city where I grew up, police brutality was an issue rarely discussed because it was common, something that often happened to my closest friends and me. Parlier, California, is a poverty-stricken Hispanic community. In this small town, gang violence was a common occurrence and police encounters were a must. 

It was well understood early on that the local police department was the enemy. The homeboys often experienced police brutality. We all shared information concerning some police officers we especially disliked. 

An incident I still remember happened at the local high school.