Want to Ask the Nation a Couple of Questions?

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The A.L. Burruss Institute of Public Service and Research at Kennesaw State University in Georgia has invited the JJIE to submit two questions about juvenile justice for a nationwide poll. Here’s a chance to measure the public’s opinion on any number of important matters impacting our youth today, from program funding, to crime, to education. It’s a big issue, juvenile justice, too big to be covered in two questions. So we’re forced to whittle it down. Are you interested in helping?

Considering the Eighth Amendment and Juveniles

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A New York Times story examines the possibility of the U.S. Supreme Court in the near future taking up the question of whether a life sentence for a killing committed by a juvenile constitutes a violation of the Eight Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. A year ago, the high court ruled such sentences did violate the Eighth Amendment in cases not involving a killing. According to the story by Adam Liptak and Lisa Faye Petak, such a decision would affect some 2,500 prisoners.  

Father Furious At Police For Charging Son

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Police in Cobb County, Ga., have charged a 16-year-old boy with second-degree vehicular homicide after the vehicle he was driving crashed, killing his mother. Police say the two were on their way to an orthodontist appointment when their car was hit at an intersection in the northern suburbs of Atlanta. Police say the boy -- whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile -- was trying to turn left into the intersection, but his view was obstructed by a truck. When he pulled into the intersection his car was hit by two oncoming vehicles. One hit the passenger door killing his mother, 45-year-old Kimberly Michelle Nichols.

Alternatives to prison: Group of multicultural arms an hands forming circle reaching to each other with multi-colored puzzle pieces

Journeys

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Life is a great adventure, but it’s not always easy. For all the joy, excitement and feelings of accomplishment we experience, there’s just as much sorrow, boredom and defeat. It’s like any journey. You know you can deal with the easy parts; the challenge is how to get through the bad times. The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange will start focusing on one aspect of those bad times in a few days when we profile Kyle Boyer, a teen from suburban Atlanta who went from a hopeless addiction to prescription drugs to recovery.

Experts Say be Careful of Ecstasy, Adam, Hug and Beans

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It has that reputation of giving one a sense of inner peace, even euphoria. But experts say the drug that goes by such kind and gentle names as ecstasy, Adam, Blue Kisses, Care Bears, Hug, Beans, Lovers' Special,  Molly, Rolling, Scooby Snacks and Tom and Jerries, is not nearly as warm and fussy as the names imply. Taking the drug, they say, can lead to long-term negative effects on the brain's serotonin center -- a region of the brain that regulates mood, memory and sexual desire -- and can cause depression and other serious health problems.

Salt Lake City's The Deseret  News delves into the issue in more depth in a story published this week.

Administration’s Turn-About on Juvenile Justice

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In the Good News Department it seems the Obama administration has come to the conclusion that cutting juvenile justice programs and making them competitive isn’t such a good idea after all. A few days ago, the administration announced it had altered it original proposal maintaining and adding certain crucial programs.

See the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention press release for more details.

Coalition Responds to Cuts in Juvenile Justice Funding

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The Obama administration’s FY 2012 budget proposes to significantly cut funding for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and make the remaining funds available to individual states through a competitive process. This proposal would eliminate OJJCP’s existing grants program, the only dedicated federal source to the states for juvenile justice system improvements. The National Coalition for Juvenile Justice and its partners has responded to this proposal with a letter to the president.

Cracking the Unpleasant Dealing in Walnut Grove

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National Public Radio has done a series on the nation’s largest juvenile justice detention facility in the small town of Walnut Grove, Miss. The story was triggered, in part, by a civil rights lawsuit brought by the Montgomery, Ala.,-based Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union.  The suit against the private operator of the facility, GEO Group, claims that inmates are held in inhuman conditions, that sex takes place between female guards and male inmates and that inmate-on- inmate violence is rampant. In mid-2010 the Louisiana-based GEO Group was awarded a contract by the Georgia Department of Corrections to operate a 1,500 adult correctional detention in Milledgeville.

A Sad Tale of Sexting

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See this story in Sunday's New York Times of 14-year-old Margarite's mistake in 2010 that led to her own humiliation and altered the lives of so many around her.

Judge: Big Problems If Georgia Doesn’t Sign Compact

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A few days ago, one of Judge Mary Carden’s probation officers came to her with a problem. A juvenile on probation and under the supervision of her court had moved to Texas with his parents. The probation officer did what he had always done; he phoned his counterpart in Texas, explained the situation and asked, as usual, that Georgia transfer supervision to the state of Texas. “Texas,” Judge Carden said, “essentially told us ‘come get your kid.’ They told us that Texas is very much aware that Georgia has chosen not to sign the Compact and as far as they were concerned, this wasn’t their problem.”

The Compact Judge Carden refers t o is the Interstate Compact for Juveniles (ICJ), a legal mechanism that allows for the speedy and seamless transfer of delinquents and runaways between states. Georgia currently operates under the framework of a 1955 agreement.