COVID-19 in juvenile facilities: worker with packaged masks for distribution

As COVID-19 lingers, some juveniles facilities rate better than others in health safety

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The nation’s 1,772 juvenile facilities face many challenges caused by the pandemic, according to those working inside and monitoring them from the outside. So far, juvenile facilities — 789 of the 1,510 nationwide are detention centers or long-term secure facilities, the remainder are group homes, residential treatment centers, wilderness camps and such — and the organizations monitoring them have reported no young people dying from the disease.

Opinion: People like me — transformed and propelled by prison life — must be part of the fix for what’s broken in our criminal justice system

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From the courthouse, I was remanded, without bail, to Rockland County Jail. The next morning, I lifted myself off a three-inch-thick mattress, stood and stared out of a window high on the wall of my cell. Blue sky is all I could see. A resolve swept over me: “You need to get through whatever lies ahead so you can get out in the world and discover what life is really about. There has to be a better way to live.” I made that pact with myself.

gun suicides among youth report: gun hidden in clothes drawer

Half of suicides were by gun; suicides by all methods rose sharply among minority youth

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With suicides, including those by gun, the second-leading cause of death for 10- through 34-year-olds — and suicides surging by 35% during 20 years ending in 2019 — it’s important to raise awareness that suicides are preventable and that most of those survive an attempt do not try another.

That’s according to the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, whose early December report, “Convergence Dialogue on Guns and Suicide Prevention,” highlights interventions, including safe gun storage and efforts to safeguard the mental health of young people and others who may be suicidal.

Jacksonville, Florida's gun-murder capitol: bridge going over water in Jacksonville

In Jacksonville, Florida’s gun-murder capitol, locals assess the merits of crime prevention and punishment

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Adrift after his father was shot and killed during an argument with a man at a Jacksonville, Fla. bar, then 14-year-old Robert LeCount spent several years burnishing his reputation as a drug-dealer and star athlete.

“We had football rivalry, we had basketball rivalry, we had baseball rivalry. That's how we dealt with a lot of things. Our energy was in the sports and in different activities.” said LeCount, now 63, a Disciples of Christ pastor whose son, then 22, was shot in their Florida hometown in 2003.

School shooting: Photos of four teenagers nestled in collection of multi-colored flowers and cards

Opinion: Gun debate should shift toward adult shooters, who outnumber schoolkids with deadly weapons

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Any shooting in a school – like any homicide, suicide, fatality or injury anywhere – unquestionably is a tragedy. For that very reason, we need to stop the self-defeating commentary about gun violence that occurs in schools that hardly tells the whole story: Gun violence in schools amounts to a fraction of gun violence in America. Adults kill more kids than do teen gunmen.

Politicians, media talking heads and others have so fanned the flames on this subject that a Pew poll found that “a majority of U.S. teens fear a shooting could happen at their school.”

Community probation, community service, crisis intervention and other services are listed on a sign outside a juvenile probation office.

Q&A: Long Island judge seeks collaboration among trauma-focused child welfare and juvenile agencies and youths’ families

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Launched in summer 2021 as an expansion of the incarceration-diversion program, Long Island, N.Y.'s ConcepTS also stands for “collaboration, oversight, nurturing, community, engagement, participation and treatment services.” It’s the brainchild of Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho, who says he has a heart for young people and a love of the law. The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange’s Micah Danney interviewed Camacho about what diversion programs mean for juvenile offenders and the juvenile justice system he helps to oversee.

Henry Montgomery is free: laughing older black man with glasses, fasemask and headphones

Henry Montgomery, at center of juvenile life debate, is free

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The Louisiana inmate whose Supreme Court case was instrumental in extending the possibility of freedom to hundreds of people sentenced to life in prison without the opportunity for parole when they were juveniles was freed on parole Wednesday after spending nearly six decades behind bars.

Henry Montgomery, 75, was released from prison just hours after the parole board's decision and went to the offices of the Louisiana Parole Project, a nonprofit which is supporting him after his release. There he was embraced by tearful staff and former juvenile lifers who were freed as a result of the court case that bears Montgomery's name.

JJIE Hub Latest: Closeup of adult dark-skinne hands locking handcuff around young person of color wrist.

Latest on the Hub: Nov 2021

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Racial disparities among juvenile detainees; declining juvenile detentions amid COVID-19; and the impact of criminally charging only those at least 18 years old are topics recently addressed by a range of governmental, academic and nonprofit entities. 

A New Yorker’s one-time criminal charge, juvenile probation and homelessness

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In the eyes of court officials with say-so over whether he remains free or on lockdown, Nasheem Heath has mostly made the right moves since, at age 16, he was arrested for pointing a pistol at a random stranger and snatching that man's necklace and cash. Heath has not been re-arrested. He has held a seasonal job with a moving company. What he still doesn’t have is a home to call his own or the kind of income that would let him afford it. I was angry,” said Heath, now 20, who was a homeless kid on that night in May 2017 when he committed that crime.

medical treatments for substance abuse in New York jails: woman holding "safe consumption now!" sign

Medical treatments for substance use disorders are slated for all New York jails and prisons

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While jailed on drug charges at New York City’s Rikers Island in 1994, Marilyn Reyes received medical treatment to curb her heroin addiction. But once Reyes, then in her 20s, was convicted and transferred to an upstate prison, she stopped getting the medications prescribed to help her overcome what's since been labeled as opioid use disorder. “It was the most traumatizing, horrible experience I ever had,” said Reyes, now co-director of Peer Network of New York, which provides, among other services, needle exchanges to reduce some of the health hazards of using illegal drugs.