Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/prominence/series-featured/page/4/)
Select this option to allow this post to float to the top of any/all series landing pages sorting by Featured first.
It was the fall of 1988 when Rose Wilson, then 33, was given a life sentence for murder in South Carolina. Her daughter, Kasi, was only 8 months old. Like many children of incarcerated parents, Kasi was raised by relatives — in this case her grandparents — but her mother was always in her life. “We made constant visits. We would go see her once every three or four months or so,” Kasi Wilson said.
When Michael Khanlarian began teaching incarcerated youth about the work of William Shakespeare, he never expected them to develop a rap about a 16th-century play. Using text from the play “Henry V,” a play about the titular British king and his rise to power, students created a cypher — a kind of freestyle rap battle — using Henry’s speeches.
Mark Trammell hadn't been a free man since he was a teenager, but this year he hoped that was about to change.
Set for parole in February, Trammell was ready to go home to see his family. After more than 40 years for voluntary manslaughter and kidnapping in South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) facilities, he wanted his last moments to be outside prison walls. His stage 4 liver cancer, the result of untreated hepatitis, would make him particularly vulnerable to diseases like COVID-19. Not only would he be denied parole, but by June 6 he would die in a Columbia, South Carolina hospital from COVID-19. Though initially his death was erroneously reported to his family as related to his cancer, Trammell would be one of the first reported COVID-19 deaths at an SCDC facility.
AUBURN, New York — On the day she would see her father for the first time in nearly five months as he bounced among three maximum-security prisons, Julianna Bundschuh, 5, hung on the metal fence of Auburn Correctional Facility as if it were at a playground. Near her stood Kristina Abell, who arrived first at 7 a.m. Wednesday with eight boxes of food for her son. Behind Abell was a woman named Courtney who didn’t want to give her last name. She came to see her fiance and was wondering how long these visits would last. None had seen their loved ones since mid-March, when state-run prisons across New York suspended visitation due to coronavirus.
SCHENECTADY, New York — After an arrest that thrust the Schenectady Police Department into the national spotlight due to another knee-to-head chokehold on a person of color, the front steps of City Hall became the backdrop for the two different responses that would follow. Schenectady NAACP President Odo Butler called for outrage to turn into policy shifts on July 11, standing next to Police Chief Eric Clifford. He was echoing a familiar sentiment in the small city of 65,000, separated from Manhattan by nearly three hours of suburban highway along the Hudson River. Clifford had already approved five preliminary police reforms days before.
Two days later, dozens of protesters from the activist group All of Us marched up those steps and blocked all entrances to City Hall. The group had its own 13 demands, garnered through community input.
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.
NEW YORK — Cornelius Fredericks, 16, was sitting at a table eating lunch when he was tackled by a staff member at Lakeside Academy in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Soon after he hit the ground, two other staff members ran over to assist. They started restraining Fredericks for throwing food. The teen remained restrained for 12 minutes. It would be the last minutes of his life.
The New York City Department of Corrections will discipline 17 officers for their conduct surrounding the death of 27-year-old Layleen Polanco, a transgender Rikers Island inmate being housed in solitary confinement.
The biggest promise of police reform came in Mayor Ben Walsh’s first executive order after 18 months in office. It happened on June 19, the first time the city recognized Juneteenth as a paid holiday.
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) approved a resolution in 2016 to limit the use of solitary for young people, urging judges to take leadership positions in the effort. We recently presented to NCJFCJ’s annual conference seeking to highlight the role that judges can and should play in ending solitary. We presented recent reforms in Colorado as proof that success can be achieved.