OP-ED: President’s Budget Includes Crucial Funding for Juvenile Justice

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This year, President Barack Obama's budget reflects more of the juvenile justice field's priorities than ever before. These funding proposals will be crucial in advancing juvenile justice reforms in a number of ways. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) has provided critical federal funding for nearly 40 years, under the Title II formula grant funds, to states to comply with a set of minimum requirements designed to protect children and meet their unique needs. The president’s budget includes $70 million under Title II for states to utilize in keeping status offenders from being detained, removing children from adult jails and lock ups, and reducing the disparate treatment of youth of color in the juvenile justice system. The “deinstitutionalization of status offenders” or “DSO provision,” applies to young people whose actions would not be considered offenses at the age of majority, such as skipping school, running away, breaking curfew and possession or use of alcohol.

Public Kid vs. Private Kid Divide in One New York Community Turns Dangerous

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In Ramapo, New York, a town divided by race, religion, and culture, a demographic split has allowed public money to pour into private religious schools, resulting in huge cuts to the already decimated public school system. Community leaders fear that the cuts, which will essentially eliminate all non state-mandated programs like music, sports and art, will create a school-to-prison pipeline.

VIDEO: Interviews with Experts at Coalition for Juvenile Justice’s Annual Conference

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The Coalition for Juvenile Justice’s annual conference is in Washington, D.C., this year between May 1 and 4. The JJIE is reporting from the event as well as giving participants an opportunity to talk about their work. Videos of the interviews will be posted here over the next few days. Dr. David Kemper - Executive Director/President, Life Bridge

Susan Kamp - Chair, Coalition for Juvenile Justice Executive Board (Vt.)

Erin Lear - Midwest Regional Representative, CJJ (Mo.)

David Schmidt, State Director - New Mexico Council on Crime and Delinquency:

Judge Jerrauld Jones, Norfolk Circuit Court, Norfolk, Va.:

Symone Sanders - Chair, National Youth Committee (Neb.)

Robert Listenbee

Details of OJJDP Reorganization Announced

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The federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Administrator, Robert Listenbee, officially announced Friday the reorganization of the office.

In New York, Probation Can Mean More Than Just Punishment

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NEW YORK -- Next to a bookstand furnished with self help books and a shiny new computer station, a young man wearing a plaid button up and khakis shyly stepped up to the podium and took a folded piece of notebook paper from his pocket. He wants to be an architect, but that’s a goal for the future.

John Lash

OP-ED: Keep Vigilant for Truth in Reforming Juvenile Justice

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As juvenile justice reform moves forward around the country, certain words and phrases are increasingly being thrown about. We see calls for peer reviewed studies, evidence-based practices, demonstration of causal relationships and similar scientific sounding terms. People want to invest time and resources into programs with a real chance of working, and the sheen of objectivism seems to lend weight to evaluations of these programs.
I too want programs that work and that give us the best return on our investments, but I am also leery of an over reliance on scientific approaches, especially in the realm of social control and policy making that is based on a supposed understanding of human behavior. I am, and have been since an early age, a skeptic. I don’t consider myself to be needlessly critical, but in my own life and work I continually question my assumptions and biases. Problems with peer review confirmation bias have long been known to influence which theories gain traction, and now cases of fraud, some quite extensive, are increasingly being unearthed in the research community.