Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/page/221/)
In late September, Torri was driving down the highway with her 11-year-old son Junior in the back seat when her phone started ringing.
It was the Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputy who worked at Junior’s middle school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Deputy Arthur Richardson asked Torri where she was. She told him she was on the way to a family birthday dinner at LongHorn Steakhouse.
“He said, ‘Is Junior with you?’” Torri recalled.
Earlier that day, Junior had been accused by other students of making a threat against the school. When Torri had come to pick him up, she’d spoken with Richardson and with administrators, who’d told her he was allowed to return to class the next day. The principal had said she would carry out an investigation then. ProPublica and WPLN are using a nickname for Junior and not including Torri’s last name at the family’s request, to prevent him from being identifiable.
When Richardson called her in the car, Torri immediately felt uneasy. He didn’t say much before hanging up, and she thought about turning around to go home. But she kept driving. When they walked into the restaurant, Torri watched as Junior happily greeted his family.
Soon her phone rang again. It was the deputy. He said he was outside in the strip mall’s parking lot and needed to talk to Junior. Torri called Junior’s stepdad, Kevin Boyer, for extra support, putting him on speaker as she went outside to talk to Richardson. She left Junior with the family, wanting to protect her son for as long as she could ...
TUCSON, Arizona — Adriana Grijalva was getting ready to head to class at the University of Arizona in the fall of 2022 when she got a text message from her cousin telling her to stay put. The cousin, who works in maintenance at the university, had watched law enforcement descend on campus and reached out to make sure she was safe. A former student had just shot a professor 11 times, killing him.
Equal Justice USA (EJUSA) announced October 8 that it will partner with four new communities to build new restorative youth justice diversion programs. Restorative justice includes an accountability process that identifies root causes of youth criminal actions, while providing an opportunity for healing both for the person harmed and the person who has caused harm.
Louisiana is the only state to pass and then reverse Raise the Age legislation. Louisiana’s criminal justice system now treats all 17-year-olds as adults. Is reversing Raise the Age making a difference in the number of violent crimes by 18-year-olds?
Some national leaders later apologized for referring to Baltimore youth as “thugs.” But none has apologized for branding these young people as “criminals." The fact that they were so quick to label them may be explained by a 2014 study by the American Psychological Association.
The Center for Sustainable Journalism (CSJ) has been awarded $250,000 by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to support building awareness of foster care and substance abuse prevention and intervention, two of the foundation’s funding priorities.
There is sometimes a perception that abused kids are good and that delinquents are bad. But when an abused kid commits a crime, he suddenly is seen by some as a dangerous miscreant. Obviously, system change is needed.
![Locked [In] video](https://jjie.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Locked-In-video-140x140.jpg)
“Locked [In]” a new poem by Gabriel Cortez, “depicts the disturbing reality that many youth face in solitary confinement.”
The Senate Judiciary hearing opened all the doors to let the sunshine in so everything can be disinfected. The oversight and accountability changes to the bill will be very helpful in the disinfection process, including a mandate that any requirements made on the states will be subject to notice and comment.
WASHINGTON — Tear down more state youth prisons, and spend the money saved on community-based alternatives to incarceration.
Doing so, juvenile justice advocates say, would reduce overall youth crime and recidivism, keep nonviolent offenders from being incarcerated, save states millions of dollars and help the juvenile justice system live up to its mission to rehabilitate, not mostly warehouse, youths.
Against this backdrop, the Obama administration is seeking in its fiscal year 2016 juvenile justice budget a $30 million initiative known as “Smart on Juvenile Justice.”
Kayleb Moon-Robinson was 11 years old last fall when charges — criminal charges — began piling up at school.
For drug or alcohol abusers who get cleaned up, success builds on success. Some of those stories of struggle and success are featured in “The Recovery Diaries,” a new short film produced by the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange.