Slideshow: Scenes from Ferguson, Missouri
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JJIE photographer Robert Stolarik spent four days in Ferguson, Mo., documenting the city’s anguish, anger, suffering and appeals to justice over the death of teenager Michael Brown.
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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D.C. Defense Attorneys Want Juveniles Released from Shackles in Court
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“They have been shackling kids who have no violent past. It’s a horrible thing. A lot of these kids are nonviolent offenders. We don’t want to send them down the wrong path by shackling somebody who doesn’t need to be shackled,”
OP-ED: Can Young Offenders Be Rehabilitated?
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Are there those for whom redemption is impossible? I have known a lot of men who committed terrible deeds, and it seemed to me that every one of them had the potential to change, if they chose to and if they were properly supported.
L.A. Schools Program Aims to Keep Kids out of Courts
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The nation’s second-largest school district — Los Angeles Unified — is unveiled a sweeping new agreement to curb police involvement in minor school discipline and campus problems.
OP-ED: The Myth of Juvenile Crime in the Summer
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Do we, as adults and as a culture, get just a little bit nervous when we see groups of kids out and about in the summer, hanging around, doing not much of anything?
Aid Scarce for Immigrant Children in South Texas
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Tens of thousands of children crossing the U.S. border from Central American are overwhelming available aid.
[Video Chat] Keeping Kids Out of the Justice System: Talking Evidence-Based Practices
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Have questions about evidenced-based practices? Watch JJIE's live group video chat from August 18 with Jeffrey Butts of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at CUNY and Cynthia Lum of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University.