A Mother’s Mission

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Grace Bauer had her entire world turned upside down when her son entered one of the nation’s harshest juvenile justice systems. Fueled by a burning desire to alter the system, she soon became one of the nation’s most impassioned crusaders for sweeping juvenile justice reform. Editor Note: This story is a continuation of the series Mental Health and the Juvenile Justice System: Progress, Problems and Paradoxes. Readers may also be interested in visiting the Juvenile Justice Resource HUB for more information about mental health and the juvenile justice system. --
The death of Grace Bauer's mother in 1998 triggered a cycle of grief that fully consumed her life for the better part of 15 years. “It became the mark we would measure time by,” she said. The pain, she said, was especially severe for her eldest child, Corey, who was 11 when his grandmother died.

Nothing Cloudy About Sexual Abuse in the Georgia System

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A recent JJIE article titled "In Georgia, Sex Abuse Allegations Cloud Progress of Juvenile Justice Reform" is a story of contradictions -- in the midst of juvenile justice reform comes the federal report showing that Georgia has among the nation’s highest rates of sexual assaults in its secure juvenile facilities. The Atlanta Journal Constitution quoted my response -- "distressing." Although "distressing," these allegations do not "cloud" the progress of juvenile justice reform -- they underscore the reasons for reform. These stories aptly report "what" and provide some insight into "why" this distressing problem is occurring, but there is much more to the "why.” There is an elephant in the room -- the misuse and overuse of secure detention facilities. George Bernard Shaw wrote that "All great truths begin as blasphemies," and so, this is my blasphemy: We are making communities less safe by sending too many of the wrong kids to youth prison that turns them from the aggravating sort into the scary sort.

[Photos] City Heights Youth Shed Light on San Diego’s Streetlight Problem

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When Rosario Iannacone steps outside her father’s home after dark, she shudders with the memory of her close call with a stranger. If Esperanza Gonzalez must go out at night, she leaves her purse at home and runs to her destination. Ana Lilia Gutierrez won’t let her kids roam the neighborhood at night after a car slow-rolled her near an inky neighborhood park.

John Lash

Watch your Neighbors, or See Them?

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The suburban street where I have lived the past two years has about 45 houses, not counting cross streets and cul-de-sacs. I imagine that there are about 250 folks in these houses. I see families driving down the street and couples walking their dogs. I think I have met about 12 of them. That’s not many out of 250.

Reporter’s Notebook: Girls in the System

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I knew I didn’t look good, but after a day of ice packs and Netflix, I was getting used to it. The curve of skin where my nose met my face had been cracked open. A bright purple crescent bloomed across my puffy cheek, swooping out from the inner corner of my right eye. “A girl did that to you?” my coworkers asked when I came back to the office, wincing at the sight. “Why?”

It was the same question I’d asked in the emergency room, waiting to find out if my nose was broken, and the same question I tried to answer a year later while reporting a story on girls in the juvenile justice system.