equity: 2 depressed black young men looking to the right

Opinion: Promoting Equity in Youth Diversion Programs Must Be Conscious, Detailed Plan

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Juvenile justice reforms, including the growing use of youth diversion programs that offer alternatives to youth arrest and incarceration, have helped contribute to a substantial decrease in the number of young people who are involved in the justice system in recent years. Despite this overall decrease, such reforms have also corresponded with a troubling increase in the juvenile justice system’s inequitable burden on youth of color and Black youth in particular. 

Often differing from one another in their theoretical framework, structure and implementation, the constellation of justice reform strategies referred to as youth diversion vary widely in their ability to improve outcomes for participating youth or meaningfully reduce justice system involvement. When implemented well, with a clear theory of change grounded in youth development, collaborative design and oversight and data-driven protections against widening the net of justice system involvement, youth diversion can be an important tool for equity, justice and overall public health. When implemented poorly, however, youth diversion efforts are in danger of unintentionally deepening inequity. Before turning to strategies and tools that help promote equity in youth diversion, let’s consider two hypothetical youth diversion programs: Program A, designed with equity in mind as an explicit priority that therefore develops a social-ecological and social justice framework, and Program B, designed based on a solely individual-level theory of change. 

In Program B, well-meaning program staff may make decisions based on assumptions that their program is beneficial for any young person and may change or grow reactively — setting eligibility guidelines, program requirements or reporting requirements based only on what particular partners are comfortable with at the time, for example, or expanding geographically only where requested.

NY Orthodox Jewish Teenagers Charge COVID-19 Is Bringing Up Anti-Semitism

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NEW YORK — They all had disturbing stories, and they all had a familiar ring to them. 

Yakov, who declined to give his last name, was waiting in line at the Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan waiting to take a leisurely ferry trip across the bay to Staten Island when he was told to get out by other passengers. He was wearing a mask, he said, but that didn’t matter as much as his conservative garb. 

“They’re looking for an excuse to hate us, and they found it in the virus,” the 16-year-old said. “The pandemic has given them the freedom to say what they always have wanted.” 

Yehuda Weinstock took his children upstate to go apple picking. “We were treated like we had the plague,” he said. ‘What do you say to your children?” 

Coronavirus and the fear it has stoked across the city after bodies were piled up outside hospitals in the spring has led to the resurgence of a social virus. Scarred by daily experiences of anti-Semitism, Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn fear the pandemic and the restrictions that come with it will incite hatred and violence toward them.

Yellow envelope stamped with school records in red

Opinion: Academic Credits Mostly Don’t Get Transferred By Justice Facilities; COVID Makes It Worse

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The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare the very real and dangerous problems of educational inequity in this country — and it has exacerbated them. Nowhere is this more stark than in the experiences of youth in the juvenile justice system — youth already routinely ignored, disenfranchised and left behind. Youth incarcerated during 2020 will likely have even less education than those incarcerated before the pandemic. 

Youth have long faced challenges in receiving an education in the juvenile justice system. A new report, “Credit Overdue: How States Can Mitigate Academic Credit Transfer Problems,” highlights the numerous shortcomings of educational programs within juvenile justice facilities that persisted even before the additional obstacles created by COVID-19. 

Youth in juvenile justice detention centers and longer-term placements face educational instability as they are moved from facility to facility within the juvenile justice system. The curriculum of juvenile justice schools is often academically inferior and may not align with state requirements and standards.

plea agreement: Hands tied up by handcuffs on table signing an agreement

Opinion: Juvenile Records Should Not Be Used In Adult Sentencing Enhancement. Here’s Why.

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How is this possible?" I ask my friend Felix. There’s a noticeable and rare twist of anger in my voice.

"You know what to expect,” he says. “When have they ever ruled on the side of the law when it comes to us?" Felix is responding to the news I just shared with him: My case in the Washington State Court of Appeals was denied.

"Yeah, I know! What was I thinking, having hope?"

I want to scream in the justices’ faces, "HOW CAN YOU BE SO DUMB? DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND THE LAW?"

I’m annoyed with myself. I have been involved with the courts since I was 11 years old. The fact that I allowed myself to hope I could receive a fair shot in the courts, well, it pisses me off — I know better. But what hurt the most was listening to my partner cry on the phone while I read the email from my lawyer:

Macon: Man in suit talks to class, some students have their hands up.

Macon’s School-justice Partnership Vulnerable To Pandemic, Change In Leadership

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MACON, Georgia — Bibb County District Attorney David Cooke first heard about school-justice partnerships five years ago on the other side of the country, at a juvenile justice conference in Phoenix. But the successful program that inspired him started only 70 miles away from Macon, in Clayton County. 

Nearly two decades ago, the chief judge of Clayton County’s juvenile court pioneered an approach aimed at keeping children out of the criminal justice system and in school. His strategy was to address misconduct within the school system and replace exclusionary discipline — like expulsions and suspensions — with services children needed. The model he devised, called a school-justice partnership, recognized that underlying many school disciplinary problems are histories of trauma and unmet mental health needs — and that responding to children’s disciplinary problems by involving them with the juvenile justice system only increases their risk for further justice system involvement. Under Cooke’s leadership, the Bibb County School District’s school-justice partnership had a successful start during the 2018-19 school year.

Maryland: Isometric arrow formed by multiple merging colorful lines on white background. Coalition, partnership, merger, alliance, integration concept.

Opinion: Our Maryland Coalition Supports Evidence-based Programs For Black, Brown Communities

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Gun violence in Maryland disproportionately impacts young Black and brown men and, increasingly, women. It is important that gun violence prevention organizations look beyond traditional efforts to curb gun violence. In light of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many other individuals who have experienced police violence, advocates of violence prevention must address the growing concern of police violence and offer alternatives to community policing. 

Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence has led the charge on that front, joining with The Community Justice Action Fund to create The Maryland Violence Prevention Coalition (MVPC). 

MVPC is a statewide coalition of organizations with the joint mission of reducing violence and improving living conditions in underserved Maryland communities. Using a community-led approach, we seek to empower the voices often neglected and educate elected officials and the public about urgent community needs. The coalition was initially formed in 2018 to coordinate education and advocacy efforts to support state Delegate Brooke Lierman’s legislation to establish the Maryland Violence Intervention and Prevention Program (VIPP).

Gladiator School: Man with short gray hair, long droopy mustache, blue T-shirt sits in dark room.

Photographer Helps Men From California’s Old ‘Gladiator School’ Tell Stories Of Their Survival

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As David Reeve approached the picnic, he knew he was the odd one out. After all, it took some convincing for the group to make an exception for him. Unlike the men barbecuing and swapping prison stories, Reeve never spent time in California’s juvenile justice system or its infamous Youth Training School, which the men dubbed the “Gladiator School.”

“They called YTS a gladiator school because you are going to learn and harden yourself into becoming a gladiator,” Reeve said. “You are going to learn to fight, to make deals and negotiate for survival because many of them were headed towards adult prisons like San Quentin or other hardened prisons.”

Among the picnickers who gathered at Yucaipa Community Park in Yucaipa, California, for the reunion were John Berge. He spent 22 months at YTS before returning as an adult, working as a vocational instructor and later as an institutional gang investigator, Reeve said.

California:Illustration in flat style of 3 young men from the waist up in black and rust shirts waving.

Opinion: Closing California’s State Youth Prisons is a Victory for Racial Justice

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In a long-awaited decision, California leaders have moved to close the state’s youth correctional institutions managed by the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). Throughout its 80-year history, DJJ has come under harsh criticism for its prison-like conditions, rampant violence and dramatic racial disparities among youth behind its walls. 
Recently, the rapid spread of COVID-19 inside DJJ facilities sparked community outrage. Youth at DJJ were already exposed to traumatic conditions. Now, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they experience further isolation from family and peers as well as a severe lack of rehabilitative programming. This public health crisis exposes DJJ’s inherent flaws and patterns of neglect. 

On Aug.

gun violence: Man and woman fasten seatbelts while sitting in car

Opinion: Gun Violence Can Be Reduced With Incremental Changes, As With Car Safety

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I remember when everyone knew a family that had been adversely affected by the loss or serious injury of a loved one in a motor vehicle accident. Initially, there was much hand-wringing and little action about automobile safety. After seat-belt laws were enacted, people railed against them as government interference, spreading fearful predictions that people would be trapped inside their cars. Then, something amazing happened: Seat belts worked. Fewer people died, and a disproportionate number of those who did die were not strapped in. 

Automobile manufacturers were not fans of improved safety measures for cars.

life sentence: Prison with light and shadow spelling out life through a barred window

Opinion: Policymakers, Time To End Juvenile Life Sentencing

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A viral video in August showed an 8-year-old boy being arrested at his elementary school in handcuffs that slid off his tiny wrists. A police officer can be heard telling the child, “You’re going to jail.” Sadly, this is just the latest disturbing example of the uniquely American phenomenon of vilifying and overpolicing our nation’s children. 

America incarcerates more people under 18 than any other nation and is the only country in the world to condemn its children to die behind bars, with no chance of freedom or hope for redemption. For these “juvenile lifers,” no matter their progress in treatment or rehabilitation, their home from the age of 15 — or whenever they were sentenced as a child — is a jail cell.    

This is not only a draconian approach at odds with undeniable science showing that youth who have committed even serious offenses can be successfully rehabilitated, it also perpetuates unconscionable racial inequities. The majority of kids we throw away through these juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences are Black. Our system is sadly predisposed to see the humanity in white children more than children of color; approximately 70% of children sentenced to life without parole have been Black since 2012.