Black girls: Desperate black girl puts her hands in her hair

Opinion: Bring Back Black Girls Before They’re Herded Into Foster Care, Justice System

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The #SayHerName movement that was launched in 2014 by the African American Policy Forum and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies has gained immense momentum amid a number of nationally recognized murders of Black women at the hands of police. A goal of the campaign is to bring to light the oft overlooked stories of Black women and girls who have needlessly and unjustifiably perished in their encounters with law enforcement. 

#SayHerName is an important, overdue and necessary movement. It is a vigil for Black women and girls who have fatal interactions with the legal system and is crucial to honoring those lost and to educating society on the all too common, yet underacknowledged, realities of being a Black female in America. While we recognize the importance of #SayHerName, we want to shed light on a population of Black girls who are entangled in America’s custodial systems and seemingly missing in plain sight. These girls are placed under the control of institutions that were avowedly designed to protect and/or rehabilitate young people but that often do just the opposite and, in turn, create a new population of victims. 

These systems have the capacity to inflict irreparable physical and psychological harm, which in some instances has led to the untimely deaths of Black girls.

sex offender: Boy sitting on floor with head on knees

Opinion: Sex Offender Registration Doesn’t Help Victims, Hurts Young Offenders

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States across the country place children as young as 8 years old on sex offender registries for conduct that is otherwise developmentally normal. Required by federal law, this label imposes barriers on young people’s access to education, employment and safe housing. It can devastate them psychologically with little benefit to the community. 

COVID-19: Food worker wearing face mask and gloves holding takeout order in bag.

Opinion: Blaming Young People For COVID-19 Infections, Crime Is Unfair Stereotype

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As Latinx and Black Americans experience highly disproportionate rates of coronavirus infections, mainstream and progressive commentators correctly conclude that conditions of poverty, including cramped living and working spaces, forced returns to work and less access to quality health care, are responsible for higher case counts in communities of color. When new infections shifted strongly from racially diverse, Democrat-voting to mostly white, Republican-voting states this summer, commentators issued political criticisms but refrained from suggesting innate cognitive or moral problems, even as media reports showed unmasked crowds flouting public health standards. For more information on JJIE Hub Newly Added Resources, go to JJIE Resource Hub  | Newly Added Resources
Contrast that restraint with the mass blame game that ensued when coronavirus cases rose among young people. Commentators as diverse as California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, MSNBC host Chris Hayes, Dr. Irwin Redlener, New York Times reporters and scores of others hurled epithets such as “selfish,” “reckless,” “partying” and delusional “invincibility” at teenagers and college-age adults to charge them with moral and cognitive defects. 

Why the abrupt, often angry change in tone when those infected were young rather than black, brown or older white adults? After all, many of the same challenging conditions apply to young people that apply to people of color. 

Young people’s risks for certain behaviors derive from their much higher poverty rates compared to older Americans, not innate recklessness.

Yellow envelope stamped with school records in red

Opinion: Academic Credits Mostly Don’t Get Transferred By Justice Facilities; COVID Makes It Worse

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The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare the very real and dangerous problems of educational inequity in this country — and it has exacerbated them. Nowhere is this more stark than in the experiences of youth in the juvenile justice system — youth already routinely ignored, disenfranchised and left behind. Youth incarcerated during 2020 will likely have even less education than those incarcerated before the pandemic. 

Youth have long faced challenges in receiving an education in the juvenile justice system. A new report, “Credit Overdue: How States Can Mitigate Academic Credit Transfer Problems,” highlights the numerous shortcomings of educational programs within juvenile justice facilities that persisted even before the additional obstacles created by COVID-19. 

Youth in juvenile justice detention centers and longer-term placements face educational instability as they are moved from facility to facility within the juvenile justice system. The curriculum of juvenile justice schools is often academically inferior and may not align with state requirements and standards.

California:Illustration in flat style of 3 young men from the waist up in black and rust shirts waving.

Opinion: Closing California’s State Youth Prisons is a Victory for Racial Justice

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In a long-awaited decision, California leaders have moved to close the state’s youth correctional institutions managed by the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). Throughout its 80-year history, DJJ has come under harsh criticism for its prison-like conditions, rampant violence and dramatic racial disparities among youth behind its walls. 
Recently, the rapid spread of COVID-19 inside DJJ facilities sparked community outrage. Youth at DJJ were already exposed to traumatic conditions. Now, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they experience further isolation from family and peers as well as a severe lack of rehabilitative programming. This public health crisis exposes DJJ’s inherent flaws and patterns of neglect. 

On Aug.

gun violence: Man and woman fasten seatbelts while sitting in car

Opinion: Gun Violence Can Be Reduced With Incremental Changes, As With Car Safety

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I remember when everyone knew a family that had been adversely affected by the loss or serious injury of a loved one in a motor vehicle accident. Initially, there was much hand-wringing and little action about automobile safety. After seat-belt laws were enacted, people railed against them as government interference, spreading fearful predictions that people would be trapped inside their cars. Then, something amazing happened: Seat belts worked. Fewer people died, and a disproportionate number of those who did die were not strapped in. 

Automobile manufacturers were not fans of improved safety measures for cars.

partnership: Older and younger people working together around a table

Opinion: Here’s How to Make Youth-adult Partnership Work

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How different would today look if people most affected by decisions held equal power in making those decisions? 

If public health decision-makers included Black, Indigenous and Latinx patients who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and suffer the effects of racially biased health care? If police accountability review boards, prosecutor’s offices and elected city leaders had actual power over law enforcement activities and included the Black, Indigenous and transgender people most affected by overpolicing, police violence and the prison industrial complex? If economic policy was set in partnership with hourly, tipped, domestic and essential workers who drive so much of the economy? 
If students, especially Black and Indigenous students and students with differing ranges of intellectual and physical abilities, partnered in education policy and planning? The vision arising from these questions pushes past those in power today “reaching out” to engage the community. Rather, the vision upends traditional decision-making structures and positions everyone who will be impacted by a decision as equal partners in power, accountability and value.

homelessness: 2 women, 1 man discuss notes on whiteboard

Opinion: Youth Themselves Must Help Design Supports To Protect Them From Homelessness

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(Series: Part 7 of 7)
Part 1: How Do We Make Youth Homelessness Effort Bipartisan? Part 2: America’s Biases Marginalize Youth, Drive Them to Homelessness
Part 3: Collective Decision-making Can Neutralize Politics of Fear
Part 4: So, How Does This Collective Decision-making Work? Part 5: Youth Homelessness Is a Symptom, Not a Cause
Part 6: To Work On Youth Homelessness, Brainstorming, Decision Analysis Strong Tools
There are policies and practices that have been proven to work for communities that embrace them. Adopting such measures need not be a politicized action. In fact, all major federal juvenile justice reforms have involved bipartisan support and legislators working together across the aisle.

Pine Grove: Firefighter at authentic fire location in forest

Opinion: A Proposal to Transform California’s Juvenile Justice System, Confront Climate Change

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The mammoth 85% decline in arrest rates of youths in California since 1995, along with the current coronavirus pandemic, have emptied California’s juvenile facilities. As of Aug. 8, just 2,800 people were incarcerated in state and local juvenile facilities, down from over 20,000 in 1995. As the state moves forward, we can continue spending vast amounts on incarceration and probation. Or, as outlined previously, California can use this unique opportunity to reshape its juvenile justice system.

Gary Green headshot wearing dark-framed glasses, nvy suit jacket with whit shirt and coarl tie

Meet Gary Green Our New Executive Director

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This summer Kennesaw State University hired Gary Green as executive director of the Center for Sustainable Journalism, publisher of JJIE.org. Green joined the CSJ from the University of Florida where he served since 2014 as digital director of the Innovation News Center and deputy news director for WUFT News, the NPR and PBS affiliates for north-central Florida. During his tenure at UF, he managed award-winning coverage — breaking news, daily and enterprise stories, investigative and long-form projects — across TV (PBS), radio (NPR), web and social media platforms. He co-founded Fresh Take Florida, UF’s state government news service, and led collaborations between the First Amendment Foundation, the National Freedom of Information Coalition and statewide news organizations. His leadership extended beyond UF, across the state as the university’s designate for the Florida Climate Reporting Network and as board trustee for six years at the First Amendment Foundation; most recently he served as vice chair of the board. “As we enter the latter half of what has been an extraordinary year with challenges many of us could never have imagined, the Center for Sustainable Journalism remains as dedicated as ever to lifting the voice of our country’s most vulnerable youth and reporting on the systemic injustices that plague their lives and prevent them from realizing their dreams,” Green said, “and while doing so, providing Kennesaw State University students experiential learning opportunities for professional development through the CSJ.”

“I am privileged that KSU offered me this opportunity to serve our students, our local community and national audiences to fulfill the mission of the university and CSJ.