Closeup portrait of a young nerdy looking man with glasses, very timid, suspicious shy and anxious looking at camera

Gender Norms Hurt Incarcerated Boys, Girls Even More

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“Juvenile justice is a gender-specific system, one that reflects and operates on assumptions about gender and reflects masculine [and feminine] norms.” —Law professor Nancy Dowd 

As Nancy Dowd notes, juvenile justice systems tend to be highly gendered and gendering environments, ones that anticipate, reward and even punish specific sorts of masculinity in boys and femininity in girls. 

However, because it simply assumes that boys will be manly and girls feminine juvenile justice systems are largely unaware of their own gender assumptions and thus unable to question or change them. Perhaps the main area where juvenile justice does explicitly address gender norms is programming for LGBTQ+ youth (which addresses issues of gender nonconformity). This is not to say that most girls won’t want to be feminine and boys masculine; of course they will. It’s about what kinds of manhood and womanhood we want them learning. 

For instance, being manly can mean learning to keep a stiff upper lip, protect the weak and put women and children first. It can also mean getting lots of girls pregnant and beating up queers. 

Both of these are definitions of masculinity that circulate in different subcultures in different places.

Gary Green headshot wearing dark-framed glasses, nvy suit jacket with whit shirt and coarl tie

Meet Gary Green Our New Executive Director

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This summer Kennesaw State University hired Gary Green as executive director of the Center for Sustainable Journalism, publisher of JJIE.org. Green joined the CSJ from the University of Florida where he served since 2014 as digital director of the Innovation News Center and deputy news director for WUFT News, the NPR and PBS affiliates for north-central Florida. During his tenure at UF, he managed award-winning coverage — breaking news, daily and enterprise stories, investigative and long-form projects — across TV (PBS), radio (NPR), web and social media platforms. He co-founded Fresh Take Florida, UF’s state government news service, and led collaborations between the First Amendment Foundation, the National Freedom of Information Coalition and statewide news organizations. His leadership extended beyond UF, across the state as the university’s designate for the Florida Climate Reporting Network and as board trustee for six years at the First Amendment Foundation; most recently he served as vice chair of the board. “As we enter the latter half of what has been an extraordinary year with challenges many of us could never have imagined, the Center for Sustainable Journalism remains as dedicated as ever to lifting the voice of our country’s most vulnerable youth and reporting on the systemic injustices that plague their lives and prevent them from realizing their dreams,” Green said, “and while doing so, providing Kennesaw State University students experiential learning opportunities for professional development through the CSJ.”

“I am privileged that KSU offered me this opportunity to serve our students, our local community and national audiences to fulfill the mission of the university and CSJ.

homelessness: Person sitting on the street with help sign

Opinion: To Work On Youth Homelessness, Brainstorming, Decision Analysis Strong Tools

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(Series: Part 6 of 7)
Part 1: How Do We Make Youth Homelessness Effort Bipartisan? Part 2: America’s Biases Marginalize Youth, Drive Them to Homelessness
Part 3: Collective Decision-making Can Neutralize Politics of Fear
Part 4: So, How Does This Collective Decision-making Work? Part 5: Youth Homelessness Is a Symptom, Not a Cause
Generating alternatives is key to effective decision-making because it provides the decision-makers in a collective body with an array of choices from which to choose. The more alternatives, the better the odds of identifying the solution best suited to resolve the problem. Decision theorist Robin Hogarth describes this process as follows: 

Imagination and creativity play key roles in judgement and choice.

South Carolina: Men standing seen from the back wearing orange uniforms with scdc inmate on back.

South Carolina Inmates, Families Charge They’re Not Being Protected From COVID

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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.

book: Book between mountains gap.

Incarcerated Youth Need Books to Combat Their Increased Isolation

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As a society, we owe a special commitment to youth in custody. Incarceration of any kind causes very real trauma and doing so at a time when young people are growing and learning only compounds the trauma. Our juvenile justice system must seek not to punish, but to support these children’s social, emotional and educational development. 

In normal circumstances, our national juvenile justice system does not always serve these children properly. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we are failing our community’s children. With the current health restrictions around the pandemic, youth in custody have extremely limited or no in-person visitation from family and friends.

Gangs-Young man with hands on jail cell bars head hung down in orange prison overalls.

I Had Every Reason to Join This Gang, But It Was a Shattering Mistake

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I am a former gang member, who took the wrong course of action in joining a gang and decided to live a life of crime. My poor decisions consequently led me to commit a senseless murder and attempted murder on two innocent human beings. As a result of my actions and poor choices I am currently serving a life sentence in prison, as I am under the authority of California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. 

I write you this letter in the hope that it will shed some light into the dark and hidden dangers of gangs and the negative consequences of committing crime. 

Being a part of a gang is serious and dangerous matters that have dire consequences. It’s like a deadly tornado that destroys everything and kills anyone who stands in its path. 

The violent gang culture destroys countless innocent lives and creates a constant fear and intimidates the neighborhood. It also damages several families and communities in the most destructive ways.

Reimagining Juvenile Detention Can Help Communities Recover

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Admissions to juvenile detention facilities are down since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, meaning that fewer youth are being placed in secure out-of-home centers. The costs to maintain these facilities remain high, however. 

Moving forward, states should consider a critical review of which detention centers to keep open. Closing these facilities will not diminish public safety, can help young people stay healthy and can save taxpayer dollars –– which will be badly needed to rebuild our damaged economy. While health care and social distance concerns were the catalyst for detaining fewer youth, the benefits of using detention sparingly are being demonstrated across the country. 

A number of states are evaluating how to decrease the number of youths who are detained in juvenile justice facilities. New York and Utah, for instance, are no longer using detention as a punishment for young people who broke a rule outlined as part of their community supervision, often called a "technical violation."

gun violence: hand held up to stop speeding bullet

Time to Invest In Proven Solutions to Violence, Our Communities

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Three months ago, the entire nation was rocked by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. In the weeks since his murder, a movement has taken shape to demand not only an end to policing, but a refocusing on community-led public safety that saves lives by stopping the use of officers with a firearm in our neighborhoods. 

This national reckoning is based on decades of righteous and rightful anger from Black organizers and community members on the front lines of combating violence. Communities across the country have taken steps to scale back ever-growing police budgets, to strip departments of military-grade equipment that terrorize our streets and to invest in public safety and mental health without putting communities at further risk. 

But while our nation finally tackles systemic racism, economic inequality and discriminatory policing, we’re also experiencing a surge in gun violence — disproportionately impacting communities of color. Shootings in New York are up 53% from the same time last year; in Chicago they’re up 46%, in Atlanta, 23%. This summer of violence has taken the lives of dozens of children across the country, including Amaria Jones, a 13-year-old who was killed in her living room by a stray bullet while showing her mom a TikTok video. 

The coronavirus pandemic and the countless deaths of Black people have exposed and exacerbated the systemic racial inequities and lack of access to opportunities for Black, Brown and Indigenous people — the same people who bear the brunt of the gun violence pandemic.

Auburn: Parking lot for building with 2 small turrets framing entrance

Auburn Prison COVID-fighting Policies Inconsistent, Deficient, Inmates Say

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Editor's note: Several of the seven people now incarcerated at Auburn Correctional Facility who were interviewed requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation. Several family members requested anonymity as well. AUBURN, N.Y. — In late May came the news from Albany: The first day of family visits —  suspended due to COVID-19 — would be pushed to August. Cliff Graham, an inmate at Auburn Correctional Facility, an all-men’s maximum security prison, saw the memo, typed a message on his tablet and waited in his cell for his 15 daily minutes of Wi-Fi. 

For two months he had been confined to a cell for at least 22 hours a day. There were no more Alcoholics Anonymous courses.

California: prisoner behind prison bars with inscription of prison made of barbed wire.

California an Example of Why Advocates Must Remain Vigilant

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 For decades, criminal and juvenile justice reformers have fought to dismantle the policies, structures and funding schemes that make up the nation’s overly punitive justice system. Recently, these efforts have been gaining traction. Polls show growing public recognition that the juvenile and criminal justice systems are harsh, ineffective and biased against people of color. 

Reform campaigns, many of which are led by justice-impacted people, have taken critical steps to repeal some of the “tough on crime” approaches that gave rise to mass incarceration and an overbuilt juvenile justice system. In the past several years, more than a million people with felony convictions have won the right to vote in Florida, 16- and 17-year-olds are no longer automatically tried as adults in New York and North Carolina, the nation’s largest death row (California’s) has halted executions and progressive district attorneys have been elected in Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Yet success in state legislatures or at the ballot box can be fragile.