Photos: West Harlem Gang Raid
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At 6 a.m. on Wednesday June 4, hundreds of police officers in flak jackets swept through both the Manhattanville and Grant Houses in West Harlem in the largest gang raid in the city's history.
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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At Conference, Experts Examine Incarceration as a Public Health Issue
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Public health and criminal justice experts from across the country gathered this week to discuss mass incarceration in the U.S. in the context of a public health issue.
OP-ED: To Heal Racism, We Must Open the Wound
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“Progress, far from consisting of change, depends on retentiveness. ...Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
States Urged to Embrace Alternatives to School Discipline Criminalizing Kids
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A prominent state lawmakers’ advisory group issued a major report Tuesday warning of the “school to prison” pipeline and offering multiple alternatives to harsh school discipline and police crackdowns on students.
Harlem Residents: We Asked City for Help, We Got a Raid Instead
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Taylonn Murphy and Derrick Haynes know all about the pain of early graves. Both have lost family in a blood feud between the Manhattanville and Grant Houses in West Harlem where NYPD conducted a massive gang raid yesterday morning. “The terror that the many thousands of people who live there must have felt over these last several years,” NYPD Police Chief William J. Bratton said explaining his presence at the early-morning raid during a press conference. “They’re not fighting over drug turf, it’s just mindless, senseless violence.” However, According Murphy and Haynes, the violence isn’t so mindless and senseless as the commissioner described when you look at it from their point of view.
Should Young Adult Offenders Be Treated More Like Juveniles?
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If brain development continues until about age 25 why does the U.S. criminal justice system continue to treat these young people as if they’re fully developed adults?
Remembrance: Maya Angelou’s Visit to Oak Hill
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A barbed wire fence stood unrelenting and challenging adjacent the stage which Dr. Angelou would grace.