OP-ED: The Dangers of Criminalizing Childhood Scuffles
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Looking at the continuing criminalization of what was once seen to be normal child behavior.
OP-ED: Not Far from the High Stakes of the Kentucky Derby, Odds Favor Incarceration for Youth
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Some 1,000 kids a year were in detention for truancy alone.
OP-ED: Racism and the Nation’s New Reality
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On white privilege and systemic racism in the juvenile justice system.
OP-ED: Injustice in Connecticut
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She sits in solitary confinement 22 or 23 hours a day. She is 16, but has been involved with the system in one way or another since she was five.
OP-ED: Don’t Forget, Violent Juvenile Crime is Actually in Decline
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Alex Hribal allegedly stabbed 22 people, including a security guard, at his high school in a Pittsburgh suburb. The story, admittedly sensational, has gotten a lot of press the last few days. A more interesting story, though one less likely to get as much attention, is the ongoing drop in juvenile crime, especially violent crime.
OP-ED: Navigating the Future of Juvenile Sentencing After Miller v. Alabama
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The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth sent out an email this week lauding two recent decisions in the ongoing efforts to restructure state laws following the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling in Miller vs. Alabama. The ruling has been hotly debated around the country since it failed to provide clear guidance to states in how to best comply.
OP-ED: These Kids Are Our Kids
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Last weekend I was conducting a workshop on restorative practices and many of the participants were educators, social workers and others who work with kids. One of the practices we like to use when considering how to best implement restorative practices in schools (or any other place) is to ask three questions about how conflicts are currently being handled. What is working well? What isn’t working so well? How do we dream it could be?
OP-ED: Kid Poets on the Inside Do Not Waste and Wither There
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The first poem that really resonated with me was Etheridge Knight’s Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Up until then I thought poetry was worthless. But to read its final lines while sitting in prison with a life sentence made the hair stand up on my arms.
“The fears of years, like a biting whip / Had cut deep bloody grooves / Across our backs.” I fully felt the horror that he wrote about, and the dreadful fear of acting in defiance in the face of overwhelming control and violence. Knight had discovered his gift for writing while in prison, and went on to become one of the nations most respected poets. The value of writing as an exercise in both self-connection and expression can’t be underestimated.
OP-ED: Fear, Race and Bias Inside and Outside the System
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I learned to fear black men at a relatively late age. Although I was brought up in south Georgia in a time when open racism was still common, my parents carefully taught me not to judge others based on race.
UPDATE: Idaho Juvenile Facility First to be Certified PREA Compliant
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UPDATE: March 11, 2014
The Southwest Idaho Juvenile Detention Center (SIJDC) in Caldwell, Idaho became the first detention facility of any sort to be certified as compliant with the standards of the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). The facility houses 90 youth. PREA was enacted by Congress to “provide for the analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape in Federal, State, and local institutions and to provide information, resources, recommendations and funding to protect individuals from prison rape.”
The Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Institute for Justice were mandated to conduct research on the issue and the Bureau of Justice Assistance along with the National Institute of Corrections were tasked with supporting efforts in the state, juvenile, community and jail systems.
The latest data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows 70,792 juveniles in detention as of 2010. According to the National Institute for Justice there is no consensus among researchers about the incidence of sexual assault in U.S. facilities. The most recent BJS report, from 2012, indicated that nearly 10 percent of adjudicated juveniles reported being a victim to sexual assault.
The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission was charged with creating standards to implement the law.