Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/category/ideas-and-opinions/page/17/)
One doesn’t have to look far to find documented reports on the problem of mentally ill residents around the nation cycling through the criminal justice system without the benefit of mental health treatment. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, law enforcement and jails have become the nation’s default psychiatric crisis response system.
In 1999, the Florida Legislature reimposed mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking after repealing most of those same laws in 1993.
As a doctor in an emergency department that only sees children, I have the unfortunate experience of witnessing the impact of violence on our youngest members of society. Getting through adolescence is difficult enough, but for teens exposed to violence the transition to adulthood can be disrupted and even more difficult.
I remember every collapsing sensation in my body when I received the phone call notifying me of his death. I was 22, he was 23 — my boyfriend had died in a freak hiking accident. His loss was devastating to all of us who loved him. His loss was also tragic for the communities he could have continued to contribute to. The future potential of this young man was never fully realized. But I take comfort knowing that up until my boyfriend’s death, he was living freely, wildly and pursuing his dreams.
According to the Violence Policy Center’s 2019 report When Men Murder Women, 92% of homicides committed against women were perpetrated by men known to the women.
As a career prosecutor I have spent the better part of 45 years working in all areas of the criminal justice system. I started as a juvenile court prosecutor at a time when our juvenile justice system was not nearly as adversarial as it is now but rather seemed more interested, as such cases are legally styled, in the best interest of the child.
When I first heard the topic was on guns, my initial response was I have zero experience with guns. Other than using a water gun at the local fair to win a prize, I never held a gun, shot a gun or even seen a real gun in person.
The losses of life, the endless pain and suffering, the thousands of lives sent to prison, fatherless and motherless children and worst of all a parent having to bury their child. Going back into my life I'll never forget the tragedy that came with the first time I heard gunshots and then saw the horrific wreckage. Two people died that night, one a man I didn’t know and the other a best friend of mine. I wasn't shot, I didn’t pull the trigger, but the bullets tore through my heart and soul. I remember sitting next to my best friend who was laying there dead with a bullet in his head.
In the midst of the ongoing pain and heartbreak of America’s gun violence epidemic, there are some incredible success stories from around the country that have profound policy implications.
In the city of Stockton, Calif., gun violence was already notably on the rise in 2011 because of a series of compounding circumstances. First, there were cutbacks in law enforcement due to a city budget crisis.