California: A street side sign indicating the location of buildings involved with the juvenile correctional departments in Orange County, California

Opinion: Juvenile Justice Systems Are Shrinking — Why Aren’t Their Budgets?

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Youth arrest rates have plummeted over the past several decades, falling nearly 70% nationwide since 2000, including a 54% reduction in violent offense arrests. There are now fewer youth in juvenile halls or courtrooms and far smaller probation caseloads. Yet state and local governments continue to invest heavily in juvenile justice, shoring up systems that are known to cause harm. 

Amid the current economic crisis, maintaining overbuilt juvenile facilities and bloated probation budgets squanders resources that schools, health systems and community-based service providers desperately need. Moreover, funding excessive facility space can needlessly sweep youth into a system bent on self-preservation. In California, like much of the country, juvenile justice systems have experienced significant population reductions.

self-care: Woman leans against table talking to small seated group in office

Opinion: Why Self-care Isn’t Enough: Resilience for Trauma-informed Professionals

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The well-established finding that a majority of youth in the juvenile justice system have been exposed to trauma has led to a clarion call for the implementation of trauma-informed practices. 

However, to date, less attention has been paid to the importance of providing juvenile justice staff with the tools needed to carry out trauma-informed practices in ways that protect them from the potential risks associated with this work. In fact, recognition of such risks is relatively new; only in 2013 did the official diagnosis of post-traumatic stress first recognize that secondary exposure to another person’s trauma is a bona fide type of traumatic experience. Such secondary traumatic stress (STS) — also termed vicarious trauma or compassion fatigue — has mostly been the focus of attention among mental health professionals and first responders. 

But well known in the juvenile justice community — even if not well recognized outside of it — is that working with traumatized youth and families, reading their extensive trauma histories, performing trauma screenings and delivering trauma-informed programming all bring us into contact with thoughts, feelings and images that can be difficult to put aside at the end of the day. What can be done? Self-care: strengths and limitations

To date, most of the strategies designed to prevent or intervene with STS have been focused on self-care and wellness promotion, which are certainly of value.

connection: Side view of a young man comforting a sad young woman in a train station

Opinion: How Human Connections Can Save Our Youth

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There are thousands of years’ worth of documented history and stories of our connection with each other. There are millions of love stories and historical accounts of all kinds of relationships interpreted in books, movies and even sketched onto buildings and structures that speaks to our powerful bond. 

Could this be the answer to the age-old question — what is the purpose of life? Science tells us it is. We are programmed to connect, not to self-destruct. If this is so, then why is it that we are suffering through a suicide crisis? 

A crisis is when a non-common negative occurrence increases in trend and frequency.

Man of color in business suit pointing to left against background of city

Opinion: Time For Marginalized Communities to Do Their Own Talking, Privileged to Step Back

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“Caution, Sir! I am eternally tired of hearing that word caution. It is nothing but the word of cowardice!” —John Brown

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” —Abraham Lincoln

March on Washington, August 1963, 250,000 people.

book club: Father And Young Son Reading Book Together At Home

Opinion: Book Club Can Save The Kids in Your Max Unit

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“My teen years were ones of drugs, shootings and beatings, and arrests. I was around when South Central Los Angeles gave birth to the Crips and Bloods. By the time I turned 18 years old, 25 of my homies had been killed by rival gangs, police, drugs, car crashes and suicides.”

—Luis J. Rodriguez

“Always Running” is a book that I recommend to everyone. It is one of the best books written by Luis J. Rodriguez and for many years was on the banned book lists throughout the country. 

When I arrived at the juvenile court school library, it was off the banned list and one of the most sought-after reads. I brought it to book club on many occasions.

White policeman holding a handgun

Opinion: Police Shooting Statistics Of Unarmed Suspects Show The Young More Likely To Be Killed

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Even when suspects are unarmed and not attacking anyone, officers are more likely to shoot Black, Native and Latinx people than white people — a grim reality receiving increasing attention. However, police also are much more likely to shoot unarmed, nonattacking young people than older people — a fact receiving little attention. 

That’s the conclusion that emerges from our analysis of the Washington Post’s tabulation, considered the country’s most complete, of shootings of Americans by law enforcement officers in the six-year period from Jan. 1, 2015, through Jan. 13, 2021. 

Our analysis of these tragic numbers confirms well-known findings that police are two to three times more likely to shoot Native and Black suspects. They are also 20% more likely to shoot Latinx suspects than white suspects.

sex trafficking: Closeup of beautiful, serious young black woman with reddish afro

Opinion: Girls of Color, Native Girls Have Been Sex Trafficked Since Colonization, Slavery

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While awareness of sex trafficking has grown, too little attention is given to how this terrible violence impacts girls of color. In Washington, D.C., Courtney’s House is the only survivor-led program serving trafficked youth. Of the young people who receive services from Courtney’s House, 87% are girls of color. 

This disparate impact is not limited to girls in the D.C. area but is evidenced across the country. In King County, Washington, 84% of child sex trafficking survivors are girls and 52% of child survivors are Black even though Black girls comprise a mere 1% of the population. In 2017, among survivors receiving services in Minnesota, nearly 75% were BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) and 50% of all survivors were girls and young women under age 25 (compared to boys and young men who comprised 6% of all survivors). 

The disproportionate rates at which girls of color are trafficked is not coincidental.

survival mode: Closeup of boy with sad expression on his face

Opinion: ‘Insatiable Darkness’: A Black Son’s Experience With The ‘Just-us’ System

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I imagined things from the standpoint of invincibility in my youth. Growing up in the ghetto encouraged me to embrace a “survival of the fittest” mentality without ever having read Darwin. As a child I understood the ghetto as an opposing force that kept my mother on her knees in prayer — sweating, struggling and protecting. She sacrificed all her wants, dreams and half her needs to protect my sister and me from ever feeling poor as children. With no father around, I was the man of the house.

restraints: Young man in handcuffs

NYPD Disproportionately Restrains Students Of Color During Crises: Agency Data

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NEW YORK — In 2017, a disabled 8-year-old Latino boy was sitting at his school lunch table with other students. They were playing with a spork, poking each other. The boy, who was being excluded, decided to poke the other children anyway, causing school staff to take it away. The staff became frustrated and called in school safety agents to diffuse the situation. The agents were unable to calm the child down and instead called the police.

Massachusetts: Closeup Of Massachusetts on map

Opinion: Massachusetts Must Focus On Root Causes Of Gun Violence: Racial, Economic Disparity

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The year 2020 will be remembered as a year of great upheaval in the United States, with so many lives and communities upended by the intersecting crises of COVID-19 and systemic racism. But of course, there is another crisis woven into the fabric of this incredibly challenging year — rising rates of gun violence in urban communities across the country. 

This troubling trend is also being felt in Massachusetts, a state known for having one of the strongest packages of gun-related legislation in the country. While we do have more regulations on gun ownership in place than almost any other state, we still experience far too many losses and far too much trauma as a result of firearms. Every shooting results in a ripple effect of emotional pain for all the individuals involved in the shooting, for their families and also for their communities. 

If we want to move the needle on gun violence, we must zero in on root causes and support the communities disparately impacted by this violence. We must focus on the trauma that surrounds gun violence, not just the guns themselves. And we must also push back on public officials that exacerbate the pain of gun violence through their words and policy recommendations.