Week in Review: Solitary Confinement, Poverty and Militarized Police
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Residents talk about Harlem housing feud. Compton residents protest school police use of military-grade weapons. And more.
An 11-year-old denied making a threat and was allowed to return to school. Tennessee police arrested him anyway.
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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 ...
A campus shooting spurred her political awakening. Her whole family followed.
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.
Justice organization announces new youth restorative justice partners
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.
A Louisiana law meant to fight teen violence is sweeping 17-year-olds arrested for lesser crimes into adult court
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?
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Texas prisons and jails are recruiting more teenagers to shore up guard shortage
5 things to know about how the Parkland shooter’s life was spared
School violence: Mapping incidents in Georgia
OP-ED: The Impacts of Truancy
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Dropping out of school is not a singular event. It is a slow process of disengagement that requires us to look at the primary reasons children are absent and then devise mechanisms to pull them back from the brink.
OP-ED: Our Words Break Down ‘Stern Disinterest’ of Incarcerated Youth
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This summer I visited Rikers Island in New York along with 15 other members of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) and had a chance to speak with the inmates.
Compton Community Protests Militarization of School Police
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The Compton (Calif.) Unified Board of Education approved in July allowing campus police officers to have AR-15 rifles on school grounds. There was no community input.
OP-ED: New Ways to Serve and Protect: Reflections of a Former Police Chief
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In 1997, as the youngest chief of police to be elected to the city of Westwego, La.’s municipal office, I was confident in my ability to serve and protect. My previous law enforcement training and experience taught me the value of holding citizens accountable for law violations — including adolescents. Community safety was of paramount concern and the reason I was elected.
InsideOUT Writers Turn the System Inside Out
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The boys at the table in the Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles are tense. Teacher Johnny Kovatch doesn’t hold back, aggressively pushing them to write more and dig deeper inside themselves.
Census: Nearly 1 in 5 Children in U.S. in Poverty
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Nearly one in five children in the United States lived in poverty last year, with a much higher proportion of poverty among African-American and Hispanic children, new U.S. Census figures released Tuesday show.
Children’s Rights Groups Against Giving School Cops Military Hardware
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More than 20 national education and civil rights advocates sent a letter Monday to Department of Defense officials, urging them to stop giving U.S. school police departments anti-mine vehicles, military-grade firearms like M16s and even grenade launchers.