Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/page/307/)
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 ...
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.
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.
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?
Almost 70,000 youth were suspended in NYC in 2011-2012. In the wake of this troubling reality, former New York State Chief Judge Judith Kaye and the NYC School-Justice Partnership Task Force presented a new report called, “Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court.”
Only 1 percent of 911 calls for injuries to children result from gunshots, but one in five of those children die, according to a recent study.
Guns are the second-leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 19, and the leading cause of death among black children and teens and kill seven children and teens daily. Against this backdrop, clergy, children’s activists and others converged on the nation’s capital Sunday for a forum and service aimed at ending the epidemic of gun violence.
Marie Scott does not want to be called by her given name. She prefers Mechie. Her name rhymes with Peachie, as in Sharon “Peachie” Wiggins. Peachie died on March 24, 2013 at the age of 62 after being incarcerated since she was 17 in 1968.
California Gov. Jerry Brown has upset school discipline reform advocates by vetoing a bill that would have made it tougher to transfer students to alternative “community” schools.
The companies that owned and operated the two detention centers at the heart of the Luzerne County kids-for-cash judicial scandal have agreed to settle a civil lawsuit for $2.5 million.
DENVER -- The first class of our day was in the morning at George Washington High School, a massive building here with nearly 1,500 students. My colleagues and I, still adjusting from Georgia time and weather, arrived a little late, hurried to the security desk for our visitor passes, and followed our host on a winding route through the halls and down several flights of stairs to a basement classroom. She was one of two instructors, and explained that the school saw near daily fights. She hoped to change that. The other instructor was talking to a group of kids as we entered the room, asking questions about a video the class had just seen.
For almost 40 years, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) has supported the work of afterschool programs to protect young people and promote safe communities. While just one part of the whole JJDPA picture, funding for evidence-based afterschool programs has empowered communities to implement innovative programs that provide opportunities to engage young people in their own futures. This week, JJDPA will be on our minds as more than one million Americans and thousands of communities nationwide celebrate Lights On Afterschool, an annual event that helps to raise awareness about the need for afterschool programs that keep kids safe, inspire them to learn and help working families. The JJDPA was one of the first federal legislative efforts to clearly link quality afterschool programming to prevention of youth crime and violence. Within Title V of the law, Incentive Grants for Local Delinquency Prevention Programs fund a range of innovative and effective initiatives that bring together communities to provide mentoring and engaging activities for young people.