Missouri Legislators Threaten to Override Veto of Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Bill
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Approximately 560 offenders would have been removed from the state registries, had the bill not been vetoed.
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
[Photos] In Atlanta, an Exploration of the New Family Normal
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Dani Planer is a young photographer based in the heart of the South’s biggest, bravest city. Her latest series, featured today on Bokeh, documents six different Atlanta families. Like the population of the city they live in, the families are ethnically and structurally complex, diverse in their backgrounds and make up. Yet each stunning photograph relays a common familial bond that extends beyond the confines of race and culture.
The Sting of Juvenile Detention
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Records suggest that pepper spray—called “OC” (short for “Oleoresin Capsicum”)— is deployed daily, sometimes multiple times a day, in San Diego county's juvenile facilities.
OP-ED: House and Senate Committees Gut Funding to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System
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Upcoming cuts to juvenile justice system funding could increase racial disparities in the system.
Nevada High Court Upholds Law Requiring Registration for Juvenile Sex Offenders
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In a narrow 4-3 decision, the Nevada Supreme Court upheld a state law requiring the registration of certain juvenile sex offenders, even though all seven of the court’s justices had written previously that the law may not be an effective crime deterrent.
New Hampshire CHINS Program to Restart in September
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After two years of providing very minimal services, New Hampshire’s Children in Need of Services (CHINS) program is scheduled to crank up again on Sept. 1. Prior to 2011, the state’s CHINS program had been in operation for several decades, serving approximately 1,000 children a year. However, budget cuts ordered by state Republicans, who controlled the state’s legislature, forced the CHINS program to reduce its services to around 50 cases annually, according to The Concord Monitor.
[Photos] My Whole Family is Drug Abusers and Criminals
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Today on Bokeh: a photo and interview with N.C, age 17, at Johnson County Juvenile Detention Center in Olathe, Kan., who states, "It’s a criminal world and I am a danger to society. They expect me to change over night but they don’t realize progress takes time. I’ve changed in the last 4 months here by trying to control my anger … my mouth … my disrespect …"
Top Ranking Officials Fired at Pittsburgh Detention Center
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Last week, the two highest ranking managers at the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in Allegheny County, Penn. were fired, a county representative announced Thursday. The two fired employees, the detention center’s director, William Simmons, and deputy, Lynette Drawn-Williamson, had received suspensions earlier in the year. William Stickman, a public safety consultant who retired as Pennsylvania’s deputy secretary of corrections, will serve as the interim director of the facility, while certified public accountant Lillian Reese-McGhee has been appointed as the facility’s new deputy director, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced. Following a poor inspection in May, Shuman has been operating under a provisional license from Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Welfare.