Rutgers Webcam Spying Case a Hate Crime, Jurors Conclude

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A former Rutgers University student was found guilty Friday on all 15 charges he faced for using a webcam to spy on his college roommate having sex with another man. Charges included invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. Dharun Ravi, now 20, invited friends through text messages and Twitter encouraging them to view the webcam. Three days after the incident, his roommate, Tyler Clementi, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge. Ravi’s attorneys did not dispute the facts of the case, according to The New York Times, agreeing that he had indeed set up a webcam on his computer and went to a friend’s room where he saw Clementi kissing a man he had met on the Internet.

Kentucky Officials Suspend Nude Inspections For Youth Entering Detention Centers

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This week, Kentucky’s Department of Juvenile Justice officially announced that it would be suspending its controversial policy of nude “body identification and health inspection” screenings for youth entering the state’s juvenile detention centers. Last December, the state’s sitting juvenile justice commissioner, J. Ronald Haws, issued a directive that ceased the “visual inspection of youth without clothing” upon entry into one of the state’s eight sites designated as juvenile detention facilities. Haws’ directive came one day after U.S. Senior Judge Karl Forester declared “body ID processing” at Breathitt Regional Juvenile Detention Center unconstitutional in a court document, which pertained to a suit filed by the parents of two Perry County teenagers who underwent nude screenings at the facility in 2009. Stacy Floden, director of program services for Kentucky’s Department of Juvenile Justice, told Kentucky.com that the screenings were not the same as strip searches. “The purpose of the body identification/health assessment screening is to screen for, document and treat, if necessary, signs of injury, illness, abuse and/or neglect,” Floden told Kentucky.com.

Behind the Thorazine Shuffle, the Criminalization of Mental Illness

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In Atlanta the prison dining room was glass-walled. We could sit there eating our meals and see up and down the sidewalk. Directly across the way was D-Building. When the doors to that dorm opened up a strange group of men would exit. They would seem to be in a hurry, but unable to coordinate their movements.

Life Without Parole for Juveniles: A Brief Look at the Issues

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Tuesday the Supreme Court will take up the issue of life sentences without parole (LWOP) for juveniles convicted of murder. In 2010, the nation’s high court ruled juvenile LWOP sentences were unconstitutional in non-homicide crimes. Now, advocates are hopeful the court will extend the same protection to all juveniles, regardless of the offense. Pointing to research indicating that brains continue to develop into the early 20s, some groups, including the American Bar Association, argue juveniles are uniquely suited to rehabilitation and that a life sentence without the possibility of parole is a violation of the Eighth and 14th Amendments’ prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments. Juvenile LWOP sentences are, in fact, very rare, especially for 14-year-olds, the age of both juveniles sentenced in the two cases before the court.

[UPDATED] Shooting of Unarmed Black Teen Raises Questions of Police Conduct in Orlando Suburb

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UPDATE: A grand jury will hear evidence next month in the shooting, The New York Times Reported Tuesday. UPDATE: On Monday, March 19, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice opened an investigation into Martin's death, MSNBC reported. Questions of police conduct in a small Florida town have arisen following the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a white neighborhood watch captain. Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old junior, was staying at the home of his father’s girlfriend in a gated community in Sanford, an Orlando suburb. According to an ABC News investigation, Martin was returning from the store with a bag of Skittles and an iced tea when he was confronted by George Zimmerman, 28.

Former Georgia DJJ Officer Arrested for Alleged Sexual Assault of 14-Year-Old in Custody

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A former Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) corrections officer was arrested Wednesday for alleged sex crimes that occurred while she was a staff member at the Regional Youth Detention Center (RYDC) in Gainesville. Ardith Brown faces charges of felony child molestation and sexual assault against persons in custody. Brown was removed from duty at the RYDC and suspended in January after other corrections officers alerted a DJJ Safety and Security Team to evidence of officer misconduct during an unannounced inspection. She was terminated February 2 following a DJJ internal investigation into allegations Brown had an inappropriate relationship with a 14-year-old RYDC resident in DJJ custody. The Gainesville RYDC was the first DJJ secure facility to receive a surprise facility inspection after Commissioner L. Gale Buckner began a system-wide security sweep crackdown following a homicide at the Augusta YDC campus last November.

Child Advocacy Groups Criticize Proposed Reform Measures in Nebraska

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This legislative session, Nebraska lawmakers are expected to sign a child welfare reform package that would ease caseloads for the state’s social workers as well as end privatized services in almost all of the state’s counties. However, in an Associated Press story this week the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform said that the reform measures fall short. The advocacy group says they do not address the fact that Nebraska places children in foster care services at a rate double that of the national average, in addition to maintaining the nation’s highest proportion of children in foster care homes. Richard Wexler, executive director of the coalition, told the AP that Nebraska’s child welfare system promotes a “take-the-child-and-run mentality,” which ultimately creates less safe environments for the state’s children. “Not only does Nebraska’s obscene rate of removal do enormous harm to the children needlessly taken,” he said, “it also overloads caseworkers so they have even less time to find children in real danger.”

A recent National Coalition for Child Protection Reform report notes that in 2010, approximately 8 out of 1,000 children were placed in foster care within the state.