Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/series/from-the-bureaus/page/24/)
“We want to know what does a world look like where 10-year-olds aren’t being arrested,” said the woman who trained Bronx young people to survey their peers and write a report about how juveniles are treated when they're arrested.
It’s crucial to have policies and practices based on objective criteria, Davis said. When professionals go with their gut, he or she is most likely to let bias sneak into the decision-making process.
Boots stomped rhythmically on the ground. Angry voices pulsed through the air. A capella voices pounded like a heartbeat, growing steadily faster and louder. The escalating cacophony was directed at the man sitting on the edge of the cot. He held his hands to his head.
Rep. Joseph Kennedy III drew on the spirit of his grandfather Robert F. Kennedy this morning, casting juvenile justice as an urgent civil rights issue in a rousing and eloquent keynote address at the inaugural Probation System Reform Symposiu
The 3rd Annual Prisoner Reentry Conference in Jersey City last week was more than a wonky exchange between experts; there was a moral component that eclipsed the dry talk of policy proposals.
Marilyn Reyes-Scales, 53, remembers family time in her parents’ living room as a small child, when her aunt and uncles sat with her parents, discussing the views of political candidates and debating each one’s merits. Her parents had moved from Puerto Rico to New York for the opportunity to have a better life, and they took voting seriously.
Moriah Barrett, then 14, woke up to burns on her body one night along with physical evidence that she had been raped. She had been invited to a party the night before by someone she considered a friend.
Luis Zepeda, 19, has gone to juvenile camp three times. His most recent release was after Los Angeles began a new re-entry program designed to steer youths to resources.
“I didn’t get no resources,” Zepeda said. “It was always punish, punish, punish, punish.”
Social workers “look at the delinquency system as having the power to control these [foster] kids. And the control is they get locked up. They think of that as a traditional method of disciplining the kids.”
Ramarley Graham’s family and supporters commemorated the fourth anniversary of his death in downtown Manhattan with a candlelight vigil and rally in front of City Hall.
The 18-year-old unarmed black man died after police officers burst into his Bronx home without a warrant and fatally shot him.