The $1 Million TED Talk

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Bryan Stevenson didn’t want to go to TED, the genre-defying annual conference full of big thinkers and big ideas. He brushed it off, claimed he was too busy and, besides, he didn’t know anything about it. He was preparing for a big case that was just days away – one that could result in a total ban on juveniles being sentenced to life without parole. Winning the case is a cornerstone goal of a litigation campaign by Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), the Alabama nonprofit Stevenson founded to fight discrimination and injustice in the legal system. “Well, I have to say I wasn’t really interested in going,” Stevenson said in a recent interview.

Alternatives to Youth Detention Conference Opens in Houston

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Texas State Senator John Whitmire came to the podium last night at the opening of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) conference in Houston and got right to the core work of the JDAI. Five years ago, he said, 5,000 youth in Texas were incarcerated at any one time. Today the number is down to 1,500. It has happened, he said, without compromising public safety. The JDAI is an initiative backed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and according to its press release, “In 2010, JDAI sites detained 42 percent fewer youth — approximately 2,400 — on an average day than they had prior to implementing approaches that include electronic monitoring, community monitoring, and day or evening reporting centers."

For Once, Two Brothers Behind Bars Come Home For Christmas, Part One

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No one is 100 percent sure what Christmas in the Dykes’ house will be like this year. But Zach Dykes, 17, a senior at metro Atlanta’s Hillgrove High School, is pretty sure it’ll be better than last year’s. It almost has to be. Zach was in the Cobb County Youth Detention Center on drug charges until Christmas Eve last year. His older brother, Robbie, 23, was in prison, serving an 18-month prison sentence on a drug conviction.

The Importance of Judicial Leadership in Juvenile Justice

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I am on a plane heading home from Reno. I spent a day at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges teaching relatively new judges on the topic of juvenile detention alternatives. I was impressed with the group of judges and their favorable disposition to detention reform. In fact, in all my travels to present or deliver technical assistance, I have yet to meet a judge who doesn't already understand, appreciate, and or have the desire to apply detention alternative tools and practices. The key to developing strategies to reduce unnecessary detention is collaboration -- bringing police, schools, social services, mental health, and other stakeholders to the table to understand the principles and law underlying alternatives to detention and more importantly identify resources and best strategies.

New York Governor calls for Spending less on Prisons, More on Prevention

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In a speech in Harlem on Sunday, New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo pointed out that the city’s gun violence has been rising, but instead of calling for more tough-on-crime measures he pushed for closing some state prisons. In the speech covered by the New York Daily News,Cuomo asked the audience, "guess how much it costs per year to keep a person in a juvenile justice facility? Over $200,000 per year. $200,000! You could've sent that person to Harvard University and it would be cheaper.”

Cuomo went on to say the money would be better spent at the community level and on violence prevention programs.

"We're going to take that money and provide it in community- based services so the problem doesn't happen in the first place," he said.

States Reconsider Laws That Force Kids Into the Adult Justice System

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A new study by the Campaign for Youth Justice reports that states across the country are reversing legislation that is pushing 250,000 kids a year into the adult justice system. Following a spike in juvenile crime in the 1980’s and 1990’s, many states began lowering the age that children could be prosecuted as an adult.  According to the study, incarcerating youth in adult prisons, “puts them at higher risk of abuse, injury, and death while they are in the system, and makes it more likely that they will reoffend once they get out.”

Fifteen states have already completed the changes necessary to put fewer kids in adult prisons and nine more have legislation in the works.  Georgia (along with Colorado, Texas and Washington) has updated its mandatory minimum sentencing laws for juveniles. However, Georgia is still holding on to a law that automatically transfers children aged 13 and older who commit one of the “seven deadly sins” to adult court.  Offenses include murder, rape, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery,  voluntary manslaughter and armed robbery with a firearm.

Deal to Create Bipartisan Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform in Georgia

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Governor Deal is set to announce the formation of a Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform on Wednesday.  An unusual coalition of state leaders will join him, including Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein, House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and House Speaker David Ralston.   The Council will spend the next year studying what to do about Georgia’s packed prisons and juvenile detention centers, how to reduce the bill of more than $1.4 billion, and alternatives to incarceration.  Recommendations are due in January 2012. The event takes place at 1:45pm at the Capitol.

Lauretta Hannon: Art Therapy

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Lorraine Fast, along with her husband Joel, directed a creative arts program and ministry at the Marietta Regional Youth Detention Center for seven years. Most recently the couple took the program, called Art from the Heart, to the Paulding Regional YDC. Lorraine has also been a staff member at the Marietta facility. Why did you decide to do this kind of program in a juvenile detention center setting? I wanted to give the youth an opportunity to relax and let their hair down.

Lauretta Hannon: They Turn to God and Love

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In a room with a rapist, a murderer, and assorted petty criminals, there is serenity in this place. It is a sanctuary, a privilege, and they know it. They sacrifice their recreation time to be here. When I tell folks I volunteer in an art and writing class in a juvenile detention center, they always ask, "What do the students draw?" They imagine gruesome scenes of blood, violence, and darkness.