Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/georgia/page/38/)
President Obama has joined nationally syndicated columnist Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” Project to fight against gay bullying. In a video released last week, Obama said he was "shocked and saddened" by the recent suicides of several young people who were bullied and taunted for being gay. Click here for the full video, in case you missed it.
Seven years ago, South Atlanta High School student Faydren Battle had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Problems at home and problems with her boyfriend kept her on edge and out of school. She says her life turned around when truancy charges landed her in court and introduced her to the Truancy Intervention Project, co-founded by former Fulton County Juvenile Court Chief Judge Glenda Hatchett and Terry Walsh, then President of the Atlanta Bar Association. The non-profit works closely with children who skip school (and their families) to address the underlying problems that keep them out of the classroom. Battle, now 25, is one of thousands of success stories the organization has celebrated over its 19-year history.
If anyone needs proof that emotions run high in juvenile court, take a look at the video (below) from Augusta, released by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Department. A fight erupted inside the courtroom on Wednesday afternoon, when an officer tried to put handcuffs on a teenage boy. The teen resisted and tried to leave. The boy’s grandmother, identified as Dora Ward, rushed up and grabbed the officer around the neck. According to an account in the August Chronicle, the officer was getting choked. Another officer tackled the woman and pushed her to the floor. Ward and her grandson were both arrested for Obstruction of an Officer. What made this situation particularly tense: Ward is the mother of Justin Elmore, who was shot and killed by two Richmond County deputies in 2008, after he tried to drive away from a traffic stop.
Watch the incident on surveillance video, released Friday.
Looking back 40 years and recalling the blood flowing profusely from my mouth, I now understand why my Mom frowned every time I asked her for a Daisy BB gun. I often think of this moment, and several others in my childhood, when sitting on the bench or deciding diversion and informal adjustment policies for the court. I look back and I am convinced that adolescents are wired to do stupid things, and I did plenty of stupid things as a teenager - but I was never arrested or referred to juvenile court. Why is it that most of the cases referred to my court are kids who make us mad, the kids who were never arrested or referred in my day, and not the kids who scare us? I was ten years old and I was relentless about a BB gun.
Two well known child advocates are making an impassioned plea to fight harder against disproportionate minority contact in juvenile justice systems nationwide. Nancy Gannon Hornberger, executive director of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, and her colleague, Gina E. Wood, chair of the Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Committee, write about unfairness, inequality and racial and ethnic disparities in Youth Today. They urge congress to consider a DMC amendment to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Action, currently up for reauthorization. They recommend a policy requiring every state to identify and solve problems with a six-point plan:
Establish coordinating bodies to oversee efforts to reduce disparities. Identify key decision points in the system (i.e., arrest, detention, diversion) and the criteria by which decisions are made. Create systems to collect local data at these points of contact of youth with the juvenile justice system (including case level/individual level data) to identify where disparities exist and the causes of such disparities.
Police in Albany, Ga may soon be going after kids with saggy, baggy, droopy pants. The first draft of an ordinance called “Public Indecency Prohibited” was introduced to the City Commission on Tuesday to replace another law called the “Defecation in Public” statute (yes, that’s defecation). According to the Albany Herald, this ordinance prohibits people from wearing pants or skirts more than three inches below the tops of the hips and exposing any skin or underwear below. It’s patterned after a similar ordinance passed last month by the folks in Dublin, Ga, 120 miles up the road. Aside from banning saggy pants, the law would also ban people from performing certain acts in public, such as nudity, masturbation and sex.
Juvenile crime rates have dropped in the past 20 years and new research is showing why. The greatest reduction involves kids who commit crimes together, according to research from the OJJDP. The study cites some reasons that could apply across the country:
More participation in religious and volunteer groups
A reduction in the use of guns
The drug market shifted from selling crack cocaine to selling marijuana
Which kids are more likely to offend? Those exposed to violence, childhood abuse and neglect, according to this research. Crime is also more likely to happen in small, geographical areas such as individual street blocks. For the detailed report, click here.
Looking for a way to help at-risk youth in your community? Start an arts program. Arts programs for at-risk youth in Atlanta and two other cities show measurable success in helping kids stay out of trouble and develop a more positive attitude about their future, according to research sponsored by the OJJDP and the National Endowment for the Arts. Art-at-Work in Atlanta started 14 years ago as a collaborative effort between the Fulton County Arts Council and Juvenile Court. The program was designed to provide art instruction, job training and literacy education to a small group of first-time status offenders, primarily truants, from 14 to 16-years old.
A webinar from the Council of State Governments will focus on recruiting family members, teachers and other people to mentor youth who are getting back into the community after spending time in detention or prison. The online event is free, and takes place Monday, November 1, at 3:30pm Eastern. Speakers include:
David Altschuler, Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies
Shay Bilchik, Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, Georgetown University
Roger Jarjoura, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; Founder, Aftercare for the Incarcerated through Mentoring
Dennis Talbert, Michigan Neighborhood Partnership
Learn more and register here.
The Broad Prize for Urban Education goes to the Gwinnett County public school system this year. It’s the largest education prize in the country, honoring large urban school districts with top performing students that also narrow the achievement gap for poor and minority students. The $1 million in prize money will go directly to high school seniors for college scholarships. Gwinnett Schools won this award for good reason. More than half its students are minorities and half are eligible for the subsidized lunch program. The school system is overcoming the odds for kids in several ways:
Outperforms other schools in Georgia with a similar student profile in reading and math
Cuts the gaps in reading and math scores between African-American and white students at all grade levels
Gets more minority teens to take the SAT, ACT and Advanced Placement exams
The school district is the largest in Georgia with close to 161,000 students this year, according to the school system website.