Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/series/1-priority/page/36/)
Reynolds Wintersmith was one of eight federal prisoners, all having been convicted in federal court on non-violent drug charges, to have their sentences shortened by President Barack Obama.
In just one day spent in the juvenile court, orders of protection are issued, as well as plenty of warrants for defendants who fail to show up.
At the age of 12, Q.R. was standing in the principal’s office in nothing but his underwear.
NEW YORK -- Last summer, a group of teens enrolled in a program at the New York Center for Juvenile Justice decided to take on what they see as an unfair practice in a recently released video called “Because I’m 16.”
Funds for mental health budgets were slashed a combined $4 billion from 2008 to 2012. In the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School last December experts have watched that trend sharply reverse.
The process of destroying Sandy Hook Elementary School -- where last year Adam Lanza massacred 20 first-grade students and six teachers and staff -- began earlier in the year and is now nearly complete.
On a bitter cold winter January morning in 2008, Adam Friedman and Alvin Valentine, friends and co-workers, climbed into a Brooklyn boxing ring and proceeded to go after each other for three hard-hitting rounds.
Gangsta rap, the form of hip-hop music containing lyrics about urban crime and violence, should really be viewed as a commentary on how to address racist law enforcement in the inner city. But instead, the genre’s hardcore style, spurred by the record industry, has widely stereotyped African-American males as criminals. This was the theme of an October lecture at the Chicago Bar Association by Donald F. Tibbs an associate professor of law at Drexel University, specializing in race, civil rights and criminal procedure. Professor Tibbs’ talk was titled “Hip Hop and Its Influence on Criminal Law.”
“I’m plagued by…how art is now being used as a site of dispossession for young black men,” he said. “More specifically I’m concerned about how the state is using lyrics from rap music to prosecute black males in criminal trials.”
According to Tibbs, pop culture, extending from rap music to TV crime dramas like the “Law & Order” franchise, “Detroit 1-8-7,” “Gangland,” “Cops” and “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” promotes an idea that “criminal defendants are always guilty until proven innocent through forensic evidence.”
Moreover, he noted, “Each of these iconic pop-culture shows features the same story line, meaning that people who are black, brown and immigrant is the baseline for establishing criminality.”
To illustrate his point, Tibbs used the 2012 conviction of Darin K. Wright for third-degree murder in a case in which Wright shot a man following an argument on a Philadelphia street.
Earlier this week Buckshot and DJ Evil Dee, founding members of the legendary, Brooklyn-based hip-hop group Black Moon, joined forces with the Brooklyn Historical Society and Brooklyn Bodega to discuss the 20th anniversary of their debut album, “Enta Da Stage,” as well as to talk about hip-hop's unprecedented popularity and ever-increasing influence on today’s young people.
For young residents of Red Hook, N.Y. the chance to keep their record clean, or clear it, can make a world of difference in their future.