Justice Hines: Single-Parent Households Wreaking Havoc On Georgia Children, Contributing To Criminal Behavior

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Georgia State Supreme Court Justice Harris Hines is sharing some provocative views about the troubled state of Georgia’s children. During an address earlier this month to a joint meeting of the Covington (Ga.) Kiwanis and Covington Rotary Clubs, Justice Hines proclaimed that children born to unwed mothers is the single most serious problem faced in the state in regards to children. The impact, he says, trickles down into the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems. Justice Hines shared his perspective with JJIE.org’s Chandra R. Thomas. JJIE: What initially inspired your comments? Justice Hines: Alcovy [Ga.] Judicial District Court Judge Ken Wynne, a former district attorney, invited me to speak to the joint meeting.

In Atlanta, the Boys of Summer on the Diamond and in the Community

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By this time next year, Mendez Elder figures to be on a baseball scholarship at Georgia Tech, Clemson or Rice – the first person in his immediate family to go to college. The catcher is a top prospect in Georgia and was the only inner-city baseball player ever selected for June’s Perfect Game National Showcase in Fort Myers, Fla. On a recent warm, sunny Saturday morning, Mendez was at Perkerson Park on the south side of Atlanta, helping middle school kids work on their game. Mendez is a catcher with a rocket for an arm. But what he has to offer, any middle school player, regardless of position, would lap up.

Judge Steven Teske: Build Not a Foundation of Sand

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I am sitting in the back of a room at a local non-profit -- observing a break-out session with parents of troubled kids. John is leading the session. He is 20 years old. A father raises his hand and says, “My boy wants to play basketball all day. He doesn’t go to school.

A Cold Case Review Results in Reunification with a Father

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Last year, the Cold Case team reviewed a massive file of a 14-year-old foster child named Charlie. Among the state of Georgia forms, reports, statements and all things bureaucratic was a long-forgotten letter from his kindergarten teacher when the boy was 5. In the letter, the teacher pled for intervention for Charlie*. She obviously cared for her student, who came to school without a coat or socks in cold weather, sometimes wearing filthy underwear. The teacher noted that Charlie was frequently hungry at school and also described the emotional abuse she witnessed when visiting him in his roach-infested home.

School Internet Filter Illegally Blocks LGBT Websites, Says ACLU

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Students and teachers in Gwinnett County, Ga., schools hoping to find educational material about sexual orientation and identity are discovering that those websites are blocked by the school district’s Internet filter.  The filter, administered by a private company, includes a category named “LGBT” intended to block access to sites that include information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia says the filter violates the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act, federal legislation that provides equal access to school resources for all extracurricular clubs.  According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the ACLU sent a letter to the Gwinnett school superintendent demanding the LGBT filter be removed or risk litigation. “The administration at Brookwood High School has always been really supportive," said Nowmee Shehab, a senior and the president of the high school’s Gay Straight Alliance. "But a few weeks ago the web filter system at our school was changed, and suddenly websites that I’d been using all year to plan activities for our gay-straight alliance club started being blocked.”

A Gwinnett school system spokesperson told the AJC that students and faculty may request access to some blocked sites.  

 

Atlanta Warns Parents About Their Kids’ Summer Curfew Violations

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If it’s 11 p.m. on a weekday and you live in the city of Atlanta, you’d better know where your children are. In an effort to keep kids safe over the long, hot summer, Mayor Kasim Reed and other city officials announced Tuesday that they plan to enforce the city’s long ignored curfew law. The curfew law requires children 16 or younger to be at home and supervised by a parent, legal guardian or authorized adult from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from midnight to 6 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. But the big change from previous enforcement threats came in the form of punishment threats  —  for parents. The first violation will result in a warning, city officials announced.

McNeill Stokes On Sentencing Juveniles as Adults and Cruel and Unusual Punishment

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In 1997, a 14-year-old boy named Christopher Middleton pled guilty in a Georgia Superior Court to armed robbery, two counts of aggravated assault and kidnapping arising out of theft of the victim’s vehicle for joyriding by his juvenile friends. (His mother Jajuana Calloway wrote about him in this space last week.)

He was sentenced as an adult without the possibly of parole pursuant to a measure that was enacted by the Georgia Legislature (H.R. 440 and 441) in 1995 to get tough on juvenile crime and often called seven deadly sins legislation. The prosecution had agreed to a recommended 20-year sentence. However, at the sentencing hearing the victim who had not received any physical injuries, said she would not feel safe with the 14-year old being released before he would be 45 years of age. The trial judge then sentenced him to 30 years without the possibility of parole.

Get the Most out of JJIE.org

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As I am sure you've discovered  JJIE.org is the best source for daily coverage of juvenile justice issues not just in Georgia, but around the United States. Every week thousands of people are logging on to find out what is happening in the lives of young people and in the issues they face. But did you know that many of the conversations taking place around our stories aren't happening on our website? The JJIE community is a lively bunch, chiming in on issues from all corners of the web. Below are some ways you can connect with JJIE outside of this website:

 

Facebook.

Jajuana Calloway On Losing Her 14-Year-Old to a 30-Year Prison Sentence

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At the age of 14 my son was sentenced to 30-years in prison without the possibility of parole. My boy, Christopher, was convicted and sentenced under a set of laws passed by the Georgia Legislature in 1994. This package of misguided legislation popularly known as “the Seven Deadly Sins,” was an effort to lock up juveniles without any meaningful opportunity for rehabilitation and without any possibility of parole. He is not, I’ll make clear, an innocent victim. We are responsible for our own actions.

Delinquency Prevention is Latest Area to Face Big Cuts

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Prevention seems to have become a four-letter word in Washington. The latest evidence? Last week, the Department of Justice finally announced how much money the states would get through grant programs under the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The numbers are ugly. Georgia saw its share of the money decline by 28.6 percent, from $3.72 million to $2.66 million.