John Lash

OP-ED: We Can’t Improve the US by Fishing for Red Herrings

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It is a fact that it is not easy being black or Latino in the United States. More specifically, it’s not safe, particularly for boys and young men. As a nation we seem reluctant to fully confront this reality, or to address its causes and long history. In some quarters there is also an obstinate unwillingness to acknowledge anything beyond personal responsibility or to extend assistance to people based on social and historical realities. In this world view those having a tough time — the poor, minorities, the unemployed, drug users, juvenile delinquents and others — have only themselves to blame for their situation.

John Lash

OP-ED: Restorative Justice Isn’t a Plug and Play Option

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A friend of mine has been working for several years to implement restorative practices in his Midwestern community. He has worked with nonprofit groups that work in areas of his city suffering high poverty rates. He’s also worked with several other groups interested in alternative strategies to handling conflict. For most of that time he hoped to work in the school system, but was never able to meet anyone with the power to give him a chance. Recently he was invited to facilitate a Restorative Circle with a middle school boy who was returning to school after a suspension for shoving a teacher.

John Lash

One Boy’s Story of Solitary Confinement

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For James Burns solitary confinement began when he was six years old. As he writes in a recent ACLU article, “They restrained me, they yanked down my pants, and they gave me a shot. It knocked me out."

John Lash

OP-ED: The Kid Brain and the Adult Criminal Justice System

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was 19 when he and his brother, aged 26, allegedly carried out the Boston Marathon Bombing and a slew of other crimes. Dzhokhar was seriously wounded in a subsequent gunfight, and his brother was killed. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that the federal government will seek the death penalty in the case. As JJIE contributor Tamar Birckhead points out in an interview on CBS News' Crimesider, the decision to pursue the death penalty is problematic given Tsarnaev’s youth. “The younger you are, the less culpable you are for your crimes,” Birckhead said.

John Lash

OP-ED: Reducing Youth Crime by Treating Substance Abuse

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One of the most effective and long-running efforts to change both policies and practices in juvenile justice is Reclaiming Futures, housed at the Regional Research Institute for Human Services of the School of Social Work at Portland State University in Oregon. The organization began in 2001 with a $21 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and initially went to work in 10 communities. Now they are active in 37 communities in 18 states. Their six-step model tracks various phases of youth involvement with the justice system and brings together “judges, probation officers, substance abuse treatment professionals and community members” to provide the services that kids need to address their needs and make the community safer. The main focus of the approach is treating substance abuse, a behavior strongly linked to youth crime and delinquency.