Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/page/336/)
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?
Amid a deepening debate over appropriate school discipline, board members of the nation's second largest school district — Los Angeles Unified — took bold steps this week sure to be noticed nationally.
One of my favorite exercise and nutrition blogs is Theory to Practice, written by Keith Norris. He combines a solid grounding in the science of his topic, the geeky stuff, with a lot of practical experience and willingness to adapt to individual needs. The tension between the study of a topic and the subsequent conversion of ideas into actual work exists in all endeavors, something I have been thinking about as I prepare a training weekend for people interested in learning about restorative justice. There is a purity in theory, a beauty reminiscent of the idealism of Plato and Pythagoras, that is fun to engage. Working in this realm is a kind of game, fun, yet ultimately empty without the willingness to get out in the world and get dirty.
The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released data Thursday revealing new findings about rates of sexual victimization in the nation’s prisons. Advocates claim that the new figures, however, may underreport the amount of juvenile inmate sexual victimizations that goes on in the nation’s jails and prisons.
An OJJDP-hosted webinar this week brought together officials from various agencies to discuss strategic and innovative approaches to combatting underage drinking.
Next Tuesday’s election for seats to the East Ramapo Central School District’s board isn’t about politics in the traditional sense, it’s about the divisions between the black and Latino residents who see the public school system as a civic stepladder to a better life, and the Hasidim, a mystical religious sect, that sees it as a threat to its way of life.
On Tuesday, Illinois state senators passed two bills with potentially profound implications on the state’s juvenile justice system. By a 40-10 vote, the Illinois Senate passed House Bill 2404, which would place young people in the state charged with felonies under the jurisdiction of juvenile courts as opposed to the adult system. Currently, 17-year-olds in Illinois charged with felonies are automatically tried as adults. If the bill is signed into law, such youth would instead be tried, initially, in juvenile courts, where judges have greater ability to avoid handing out sentences that entail incarceration. Under the legislation, however, 17-year-olds with serious offenses are still eligible for transfer to adult courts.
Dr. Michael Kimmel, professor of sociology at the Stony Brook University, has written more than a dozen books on constructs of “masculinity” in culture. When evaluating recent school shootings, he notices several commonalities that may provide vital clues as to why young men engage in such acts of bloodshed.
LOS ANGELES -- I have the privilege of serving as the current president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). Our organization is the nation’s oldest judicial membership organization with approximately 2,000 members nationwide, mostly judicial officers. NCJFCJ’s function is to provide education, technical assistance and research for our nation’s juvenile and family court judges and others working in our child welfare and juvenile justice systems. In addition, NCJFCJ often weighs in on, or is asked to weigh in on, important policy issues impacting children and families. In January of this year, NCJFCJ was asked by representatives of Vice President Joe Biden to provide input to the committee he chaired that was tasked to make recommendations to President Barack Obama after the Newtown school shootings. Specifically, our organization was asked our views on increased school security in schools.