Why Wyoming Is Using After-school Programs to Keep Kids Out of School-to-prison Pipeline

In 2013, the Wyoming Afterschool Alliance (WYAA) became interested in understanding the school-to-prison pipeline based on the alarming statistics that we were seeing in Wyoming and across the nation about incarceration and detention. It was confounding and disturbing to see more and more children and youth entering the system, especially at younger ages. What was going on? And, more importantly — why?

Serious aged woman holding documents, checking information at laptop online

Advocate, Teen She Helped Rescue From Egyptian Jail Share Happy Ending

In my last column about Ahmed Hassan, a teenager born in New Jersey who was held in an Egyptian jail for a crime he did not commit, I primarily discussed the problems surrounding reentry after a prolonged jail sentence. Ahmed’s alleged “crime” was being an American citizen.

How Ohio’s Restore Court Focuses on Helping Sex Trafficked Youth

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) has recently received much needed attention, but is by no means a new issue. Researchers have tried to approximate the scope of the problem, but it has proven extremely difficult to produce an accurate estimate of children who are victims of or at risk for CSEC in the U.S. State-level prevalence rates are equally difficult to produce, but a recent report estimated that more than 1,000 U.S.-born minors are sex trafficked in Ohio annually and thousands more are at risk for victimization.

racial and ethnic disparities: African-American young woman with hands to head, looking in pain

We Need Stronger, Not More Simplified, Approach to Reducing Racial Disparities

Several states have announced they will continue collecting data on racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system, five months after Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator Caren Harp announced the agency is rolling back these reporting requirements. The announcements came in the chat box of an OJJDP webinar focused on federal data on girls in the juvenile justice system.

electronic monitoring: Home arrest, prisoner is monitored by electronic device on ankle and foot, vector illustration.

Electronic Monitoring Is Neither Effective Nor Humane

In the 1960s, when electronic monitoring (EM) was developed by Robert and Kirk Gable at Harvard University, Robert Gable says they envisioned it as a way to monitor juvenile offenders and “to give rewards to [them] when they were where they were supposed to be …