OP-ED: Not Far from the High Stakes of the Kentucky Derby, Odds Favor Incarceration for Youth
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Some 1,000 kids a year were in detention for truancy alone.
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
Poet Releases Anti-Violence Short to Intercept Gun Glorification
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"I’ve had to deal with a bunch of friends and family members being murdered. I’m surrounded by it [gun violence], especially in my neighborhood."
Q&A with Melina Kolb, Documentary Filmmaker of Remember Me Sue
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The television premiere for Remember Me Sue, a documentary film about one woman’s 50-year dedication to an after-school center on Chicago’s South Side, is set to be aired on PBS Chicago at 9 p.m. Thursday. In the midst of the civil rights movement in 1961, Sue Duncan founded the Sue Duncan Children’s Center and became a mother figure to the many African American youth for whom the center cared.
OP-ED: Lions, Tigers, and Runaways – Oh My!
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It's time to change how courts deal with runaway children.
ACLU, Illinois DJJ Move Forward on Remedial Plan
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This is what it looks like when you overhaul a juvenile justice system.
Up From the Depths: Juvenile Offenders Who Turned Their Lives Around
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The hardliner prosecutor teaching a law course in a women’s maximum-security prison in Tennessee got to know inmates as real people rather than just paperwork. It changed his life so much he quit his job as a prosecutor, saying he could no longer be complicit in a system that warehoused for decades people who committed crimes as teenagers. The woman who managed an art gallery in a small Pennsylvania town always considered herself a big believer in law and order — and couldn’t imagine befriending a man serving life without parole on a first-degree murder conviction. Then somebody brought some of the inmate’s artwork to her gallery, and she contacted him. Today, she calls him a son, and he calls her “Mom.”
The former Chicago gang member convicted of first-degree murder for his involvement in a fatal stabbing and beating that took place when he was 13 now has a master’s degree, has counseled countless troubled kids and is a youth justice advocate fighting extreme sentencing of juveniles.
REFLECT: Convicts’ Letters to Their Younger Selves
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The plan? To photograph inmates at Maine State Prison and superimpose their portraits on letters they would write to their younger selves.
Models for Juvenile Justice Schools
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The Road to Success Academy is among a handful of schools across the nation that have been trying to turn the tide of poor education within juvenile justice facilities.