California: Young guy with stand-up locs outside

California Probation Can Handle COVID, Proposed Transition of High-needs Youth to Counties

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Probation in California has the responsibility of treating and supervising our community’s most high-needs and high-risk youth. We take our role in promoting healthy, prepared and positive adolescents seriously and provide each youth the supervision and support services they need to help guide them into adulthood.  

The use of individualized, evidence-based practices to advance the long-term well-being of youth is foundational to our work. We rely on practices and tools such as risk and needs-based assessments, cognitive development, counseling, therapy, and trauma-informed care and evidence-based supervision models. 

Our rehabilitative and health-centered focus has been proven successful. 

Since 2007, California’s juvenile justice system, led by local probation departments, has successfully decreased juvenile detention rates by 60% and juvenile arrest rates by 73%. In addition, we safely treat 90% of youth in the justice system in our communities, and have diverted nearly 67% of youth. When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in California this year, county probation departments remained focused on keeping our youth safe both in the community and in our secure facilities while still creatively providing the supports and services each youth needed for stability and their individualized growth.

gun violence: Man in short-sleeved pink shirt, mask speaks at outdoor podium surrounded by crowd wearing masks

New York City’s Public Advocate Unveils Proposal to End Gun Violence

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NEW YORK — Jumaane Williams, New York City’s public advocate, announced his proposal for curbing gun violence in the five boroughs after a week of at least 64 shootings. Only 20 were reported for the same week in 2019. Williams unveiled his ideas in a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on Friday. Putting into place CompStat, the New York Police Department’s statistical data tool and a new “Advance Peace” crisis management system were at the top of his list. He also called for changes to the police department’s responses right away but the timeline was unclear.

New York Raise Age: Big sign on grass says Hillbrook Detention Center raise the age renovations Tags: Hillbrook, Syracuse, Legal Aid Society, Children’s Defense Fund, raise the age, New York, legislation

Proposed New York Legislation Would End Juvenile Delinquency For Kids 7 to 11

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New York state lawmakers and justice reform advocates are trying to end formal prosecution for all children under the age of 12, in a measure that would steer them toward county-based social services. The bill, sponsored by state Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee and state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, both Democrats, would raise the minimum age requirement for juvenile delinquency from 7 to 12. This age range made up about 2-4% of the state’s incarcerated population from 2014-18, according to state data. (Twelve-year-olds would still be eligible for juvenile delinquency status under the bill.)

The Legal Aid Society, the Children’s Defense Fund and other advocacy groups helped draft the legislation as part of a New York state black youth agenda, unveiled Tuesday. The three measures in the agenda would regulate how law enforcement agencies can search and charge youth across the state.

police: 2 lines of police facing right holding batons

Militarization of Police Must Be Changed to Guardian Training

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I have been researching and teaching about crime and justice for more than 40 years. My work has focused on the importance of race and social class in understanding the issues that people face in these systems. Within this broad area of concern is the relationship between the police and communities of color, especially Black communities. The use and abuse of force has been a constant throughout the history of this relationship. This was on full display when a video was released of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Atrocities such as this one have been a regular occurrence in Black communities since there were organized police forces.

homeless shelter: Animation showing curly-headed boy with headphones

Washington State Young Adults Often End Up Homeless After Leaving Treatment

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Speaking over breakfast at a homeless drop-in center a week after arriving at the shelter, Patrick described his situation as “futile.” In that environment, he said, you don’t have the freedom to pursue your dreams. “You’re not really living a life if you are living here,” he said.

It would be another year before he found an apartment through so-called rapid rehousing, which provides federally funded rental assistance for up to 12 months. In Washington state, thousands of children and young adults like Patrick experience homelessness soon after exiting psychiatric and substance use disorder treatment.

NY Legislation- Parole, Solitary: Man in sweats, sneakers, sunglasses, hat speaks on lawn with fake graves behind him.

NY Bills on Parole and Solitary the Focus of Overnight Demonstration

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ALBANY, N.Y. —A makeshift cemetery created outside the New York State Capitol building was the backdrop to a last-ditch overnight demonstration to push for three longshot criminal justice bills organizers helped write. Organizers for Release Aging People from Prison (RAPP) and the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (#Haltsolitary) had worked on three bills that focused on solitary confinement, paroling certain elderly inmates and changing parole criteria.

Abolition Park/Instagram

New York Progressive Groups Say Including Police in Events Can Counter Their Intent

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UPDATE: The image above is from an Instagram video that has been taken down. Below is the updated link to news coverage of the same march.  Watch video here

NEW YORK — As soon as he sat down, 19-year-old Elijah Green knew he was going to be arrested. When he and several others blocked the eastbound lanes of traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge on July 15, they believed they were disrupting a pro-police march. Uniformed New York Police Department officers with riot helmets quickly mobilized to disperse the small cadre of seated protesters so the march could continue unimpeded.

Collaboration: Man in suit making a speech in front of a big audience

Opinion: Collective Decision-making Can Neutralize Politics of Fear

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(Series: Part 3 of 7)
Part 1: How Do We Make Youth Homelessness Effort Bipartisan? Part 2: America’s Biases Marginalize Youth, Drive Them to Homelessness
Judge Teske first used collective decision-making beginning in 2003 to reform his local juvenile justice system, which has netted an 80% decline in juvenile arrests. Most striking, however, is how it was employed at the statewide level in the Georgia juvenile justice reform effort to net a 57% reduction in youth committed to state facilities, which resulted in the closure of three secured facilities. 

Most striking is that juvenile arrests have declined 60% since 2008 and continued to fall following the enactment of the reforms.

The relevance of these outcomes is that they were influenced by reforms that are counterintuitive to the conservative majority in the Georgia legislature, and they were passed unanimously. This accomplishment was made possible using the collective decision-making approach that effectively depoliticized the policymaking process. Criminal justice reform is the best example of this because law and order issues are often politicized, especially by conservatives relying on a deterrence model of crime and punishment that emphasizes the severity of punishment (longer sentences) compared to the certainty of sentencing, which studies show are more effective. 

The history of crime and punishment in America is replete with politicizing rhetoric, mostly from conservatives, to influence the emotions of voters using emotional campaign slogans that are not supported by empirical evidence.

After New York City Chokehold Ban, Schenectady Protesters Push For Similar Legislation

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SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — By 9:10 p.m. the only sound audible between protesters’ chants was the distant buzz of two drones high above City Hall on Monday. One belonged to the Schenectady Police Department (SPD), which monitored over 100 protesters who had locked arms at the intersection of Clinton and Liberty streets. The other belonged to a local photographer who had joined the protest, and monitored the police presence in the surrounding blocks. As Monday night turned to Tuesday morning, the crowd, which had occupied the City Hall area and the surrounding streets for nine hours, prepared for police to come after them. Some wore vests that could stop rubber bullets, others long pants to protect against tear gas.

social media: Woman with braids, bright blue hoodie puts cards in envelopes on poster board on stand as several people stand around watching.

New York City’s Internet Surveillance System Needs Overhaul, Report Says

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NEW YORK — While working as a monitor in the dean’s office her freshman year of high school, Alexis Lanysse spent most of her time filing papers and signing late passes. But she sometimes had another task: She’d log onto Facebook or Snapchat to track incidents that the dean’s office would investigate. The office at the Brooklyn high school would use the evidence to help decide how they punished students. Sometimes they handed out suspensions and mandated transfers. Once, her school called a group of monitors to track a Snapchat story of a student getting shoved into a locker.