Top Judge Speaks the Truth About Georgia’s Juvenile Justice System

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Anyone who has spent much time around a prison realizes it is usually not a place of healing or rehabilitation. The truth is prisons are mostly warehouses these days, places where we send people just to have them out of the way. A lot of those people have diagnosed mental health problems, and a lot more have, or also have, substance abuse and addiction issues. I can’t speak to all prison systems, but in Georgia the “treatments” that both of these groups have received in the past have been, well…, laughable. Short appointments with a psychiatrist and enough medication to keep them sedated was the course of action for guys with mental health issues, while guys with substance abuse problems attended “classes” where they heard a mishmash of moralistic judgments and pseudo-scientific theories.

Investigation Leads to Sex Allegations at Augusta, Georgia Youth Detention Center

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The Augusta, Ga. youth detention denter, where a 17-year-old was beaten to death in November, continues to be the focus of an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). A team of 20 agents conducted interviews Tuesday as part of the murder probe. They were also there to investigation new allegations of sexual contact (some confirmed) between security personnel and detained youth, according to The Athens Banner-Herald. Gale Buckner, commissioner of the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), briefed members of the Augusta legislative delegation on the ongoing joint investigation by DJJ and GBI.

State’s Juvenile Justice System Needs Overhaul, Says Chief Justice of Georgia’s Supreme Court

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At Wednesday’s annual State of the Judiciary Address, Georgia’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein urged lawmakers to overhaul the state’s juvenile justice system, asking legislators to support more rehabilitative services for youth as opposed to incarceration of juvenile offenders. "The same reforms we are recommending to you for adults must begin with children," Hunstein said. “If we simply throw low-risk offenders into prison, rather than holding them accountable for their wrongdoing while addressing the source of their criminal behavior, they merely become hardened criminals who are more likely to reoffend when they are released.”

Hunstein noted that state budget cutbacks have limited services for many mental health and child welfare programs, which she said puts juvenile judges in a position to send youth to detention facilities “or nothing at all.”

She cited Department of Juvenile Justice statistics showing that nearly two-thirds of the approximate 10,000 incarcerated youth in the state suffer from substance abuse issues, while approximately one-third had been diagnosed with mental health complications. The Chief Justice warned legislators that statewide budget cuts have created massive backlogs of court cases in many of Georgia’s counties, which threatens to impede the progress of court resources across the state. Hunstein said she supported proposals from Republican Gov. Nathan Deal to create specialized courts to treat adults with substance abuse issues, as well as military veterans, stating that the system needs to examine the “roots” of offender behavior.

Man who Plead Guilty to Murdering 7-Year-Old Georgia Girl Found Dead in Apparent Suicide

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Two days after receiving a life sentence without parole for the murder of a 7-year-old Canton, Ga. girl, Ryan Brunn apparently killed himself in his prison cell Thursday, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. Brunn, an apartment groundskeeper, testified at a hearing Tuesday that he lured Jorelys Rivera to an empty apartment before molesting and killing her. Her body was found in a trash compactor three days after she went missing on December 2, 2011. DoC spokesperson Kirsten Stancil said Brunn was found unresponsive at 4:15 p.m. in his cell at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

Georgia Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in Appeal of 14-Year-Old Given Life Sentence

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Georgia’s high court will hear oral arguments Monday in the appeal of  a 27-year-old Tift County man who was sentenced to life plus 20 years for rape when he was a 14-year-old boy. Jonas Brinkley  is appealing on the grounds that his sentence violated the U.S. Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and that greater-than-life sentences should not be imposed on cases not involving homicide. According to prosecutors, Brinkley committed the rape while a 19-year-old friend, Lakendrick Carter, detained the victim's boyfriend in another room.  Brinkley and Carter also stole $180 from the couple before leaving their apartment. Carter was given 15 years in prison plus another five years of probation in exchange for his testimony against Brinkley. Five days after his sentencing, Brinkley, through his attorney, filed a motion for a new trial.

As the New Legislative Session Begins, One Bill Looms Above the Rest

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Monday marks the first day of the 2012 session of the Georgia General Assembly and while many bills will be considered and debated on the floor of the state Capitol, for those interested in juvenile justice, one piece of legislation gets all of the attention. The juvenile code rewrite, in the form of two separate bills, SB 127 in the state Senate and HB 641 in the House, was reintroduced last year, working its way through various committees and stakeholder meetings. This year, advocates are guardedly optimistic the code rewrite, officially known as the Child Protection and Public Safety Act, will pass the Legislature and land on Gov. Nathan Deal’s desk for a signature. “That’s our objective,” said Voices for Georgia’s Children Executive Director Pat Willis. “We have great support from the sponsors and committees where the tough work gets done.”

But, there is still work to be done, says Julia Neighbors, JUSTGeorgia Project Manager at Voices for Georgia’s Children and a lead on the code rewrite.

Food Pantry Helps Students in Need at Metro Atlanta University

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As the holidays draw closer, while many college students are spending late nights preparing for final exams and finishing projects, some students are just worried about finding the money to pay for food. At one college in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, students struggling between paychecks have access to a donated food pantry where they can stock up on two-weeks of food. The Feed the Future program, run by the Psychiatric and Social Services Department of Kennesaw State University and the KSU Staff Senate, feeds up to 30 hungry students each month during the fall and spring semesters, according to the program’s director, Tao Bartleson Mosley, a professor and social worker at the campus health clinic. “Demand varies by month,” she said. “Summer is slow.

police-car-siren-stock-photo-2 Clay Duda/JJIE.org

Study: Curfew Laws Reduce Juvenile Arrests

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A recently published study found youth curfews reduce juvenile arrests. The study, published in The American Law and Economics Review by the University of California, Berkeley, showed arrests of youths were directly impacted by curfews, dropping almost 15 percent in the curfew’s first year and 10 percent in the following years. The report analyzed data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Unified Criminal Reporting files from 1980 to 2004 for 54 large U.S. cities (with populations more than 180,000) that enacted youth curfews between 1985 and 2002. Arrests of young adults outside the curfew restriction also dropped suggesting fewer cross-age interactions, according to the study. A survey in 1996, found 146 of the largest 200 U.S. cities had curfew laws on the books.

Georgia Drug Court Judge Faces New Ethics Charges

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Embattled Georgia Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams is facing new charges of favoritism. Williams formerly oversaw the state’s largest drug court. On Monday, the state Judicial Qualifications Commission filed charges accusing the judge for allowing a man charged with cruelty to children and battery to improperly enter the drug court program despite not being charged with any drug-related offenses, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The defendant is the nephew of Brunswick, Ga., attorney Jim Bishop who Williams, according to court documents, said has “been there for me for years and years.” Williams is quoted in court documents as saying Bishop's nephew, Henry Bishop III, would lose his state insurance license if he was not diverted into the drug court program. In November, Williams was charged by the Judicial Qualifications Commission with a dozen ethics violations relating to her time as head of the Glynn County, Ga., drug court program.