NYC Mayoral Candidate Poised to Reform State’s Juvenile Justice System
|
NYC mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio is an outspoken critic of stop and frisk policies and is making it a priority to change the state’s age of jurisdiction.
An 11-year-old denied making a threat and was allowed to return to school. Tennessee police arrested him anyway.
|
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?
More Headlines
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: Pennsylvania’s Miller Ruling is Unfair
|
Kids are different. That, in many ways, is the bottom line of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v. Alabama.
Juveniles Serving Life Sentences Not Entitled to New Hearings
|
Pennsylvania's Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled a U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared sentences of life without parole for juveniles unconstitutional cannot be applied retroactively, striking a significant blow to hundreds of inmates statewide.
OP-ED: When the Stupidity of Adults Hurts Kids
|
No one should be allowed to possess the authority to act as a parent, but wield a sword of abuse and neglect on those in their charge.
Georgia Closing Juvenile Prison With Nation’s Highest Rate of Sexual Victimization
|
DJJ Communications Director Jim Shuler told JJIE the BJS report on sexual victimization was not a factor in closing the site.
Illinois Hopes to Stem Wrongful Convictions with New Interrogation Law
|
Juan Rivera’s wrongful conviction is one of the most infamous blots on the record of the Illinois justice system’s recent history.
Remembering Tracy’s Story During National Youth Justice Awareness Month
|
How a Missouri mother turned her family’s tragedy into a national reform movement and changed her state’s juvenile justice system.
[Photos] From Russia and Ukraine, the Police and Young They Brutalize
|
Photographer Don Weber spent six years drinking vodka, befriending policemen and waiting endlessly to create and intense series of photographs documenting police interrogations in the Russian Republic and the Ukraine.