Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/page/334/)
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?
NEW YORK -- Every time he combs his hair, Tomas Rios sees the scar. It happened when he was 12 years old, his seventh year in the New York City foster care system. By then, he’d already shuffled through a few different neglectful and violent families. By then, it all felt like routine. “I was living in one of the more abusive homes I’d ever been in,” Rios said.
Juvenile justice is a complex issue – one that affects communities in different ways. Understanding this, JJIE is creating a network of news bureaus across the country, extending its coverage to a local level. The Chicago Bureau and The New York Metro Bureau are the first of these. Each has and will be contributing in-depth local reporting of national interest.
Dr. David Ores erases unwanted gang and prison tattoos for free.
Recidivism rates at Illinois detention centers are projected be above 40% in 2013.
In a Red Hook, NY courtroom the offender, lawyer, prosecution, judge and the jury are all teenagers.
The past decade has seen an encouraging trend in juvenile justice. Increasingly, experts are recognizing that the best way to improve public safety is to rely less on state correctional institutions for treating youth offenders, and more on the dynamic therapeutic approach delivered at the county level. In late April, the staff of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) toured a facility that exemplified this trend, the William F. James Boys Ranch in California’s Santa Clara County. James Ranch is a co-ed, 96-bed residential facility for young people between the ages of 15 ½ and 18, situated in the rolling foothills south of San Jose. The facility and staff are not only driven by a passion for improving the lives of local justice-involved youth, but challenge the conventional thinking by showing that they can receive successful, positive treatments locally.
Much of today’s jail and prison population is young people arrested on drug offenses, many so heavily into narcotics that they are considered mentally ill.
On Thursday, Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) Executive Director Nancy Gannon Hornberger announced that she will be resigning from the position this August. Hornberger has been a member of the CJJ for nearly a decade and a half. Prior to serving as the organization’s executive director, Hornberger also served as CJJ’s deputy executive director. Her career in youth development, delinquency prevention and public policy stretches back a quarter century, having received commendation for her efforts from President Bill Clinton in 1996. As an advocate, she fought a four year battle for the reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), which was ultimately authorized by Congress in 2002.