Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/juvenile-justice/page/100/)
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that between 100,000 and 300,000 American children are forced into prostitution every year - sometimes through being kidnapped near their homes. Some are as young as 12 years old. The Department of Justice says the average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 13. About 75% of girls engaged in prostitution work for a pimp
Juvenile Court Judge Timothy Pape has a disturbing prediction for Georgia. He expects to see many – and possibly more – of the state’s children getting into trouble or falling victim to abuse, but less being done about it. His daunting forecast is, in large part, inspired by recent reports that yet another massive state budget shortfall is forcing state agencies to slash already stretched budgets even further for the 2011 financial year. According to the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute at Georgia State University, as the state begins its 2011 fiscal year it is facing a potential budget shortfall of between $413 million and $613 million. This shortfall is in addition to the $2.5 billion in budget cuts already implemented since the 2009 financial year.
The internet has become the favorite place to sell women for sex, according to a CNN report. Now there is a national campaign against Craigslist and its popular “adult services” section. Police and anti- sex trafficking groups are pushing to end the “adult services” ads, arguing that underage girls are being exploited. "Craigslist is like the Wal-Mart of online sex trafficking right now in this country,” said Andrea Powell of the anti-trafficking group The Fair Fund. Watch CNN reporter Amber Lyon grill Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, about sex ad's on his site.
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.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation in Decatur is getting a fresh infusion of money from the Justice Department to fight child prostitution and other forms of sex exploitation. A 300- thousand dollar grant will go towards reaching children in trouble and arresting adults who exploit them, according to the Office of Justice Programs.
To emphasize the work that’s being done in the Atlanta area, federal prosecutors released new information about three men who were sentenced and four others arrested for child sex crimes, including these cases:
Former Baptist Minister Gregory Hunter, who got 18 years in prison for producing a pornographic webcast of a 9 year old girl. Former doctor Adam Lebowitz, convicted of child porn and trying to entice a child to have sex
Michael Young and James Lampru,arrested at hotels where they arranged to have sex with a 12-year-old girl
Earlier this week, a 280 page report from Attorney General Eric Holder detailed a national strategy to fight child sex exploitation. The GBI has received other grants to fight Atlanta’s child prostitution and pornography problems. In 2009, the GBI got $1,438,937.00in Recovery Act funds for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. During the first half of last year, the ICAC made 96 arrests and helped local law enforcement with 60 cases. Read more:
Project Safe Childhood
Internet Crimes against Children Task Force
News Release from Department of Justice
The Senate Judiciary Committee will discuss the juvenile code rewrite bill SB 292, Article 6 next Monday at 2 pm in room 450 at the Capitol. Article 6 is controversial because it deals with Children in Need of Services (CHIN’s). These kids are considered status offenders under Georgia law. Currently, they are treated the same as delinquent kids. Article 6 would provide status offenders with family oriented services geared toward fixing their problems. Some of the agencies expected to attend include the Truancy Intervention Project, the Office of Child Advocacy and the Department of Behavioral Health. Attorney Julia Neighbors from Just Georgia wrote a passionate argument for Article 6:
“Current research and best practices now suggest that youth and families in crisis require a faster response than courts can offer and that juvenile justice systems are often ill-equipped to provide the services these youth and families need. ”
For more on SB 292:
Long Road to Juvenile Code
SB 292: Rethinking 17 vs. 18
Other Bills Regarding Juveniles
Exposure to trauma, delinquency and school failure are related, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). More than sixty percent of children have witnessed violence and 46.3 percent have experienced physical assault.
If you have direct experience with kids who’ve gone through traumatic experiences, you may want to join the online forum called "Chronic Trauma and the Teen Brain". Benjamin Chambers writes that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is collecting information and data. If you can answer the following question, this forum is for you:
“Where are there opportunities within these adolescent systems to better identify, assess and intervene to support the needs and healthy development of young people affected by chronic trauma?”
For more information:
Chronic Trauma and the Teen Brain - An Online Forum
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
So you’re 16 years old and broke. And you’re sitting around brainstorming ways to get money. On a whim you decide to stick up the convenience store around the corner. You don’t want to hurt anyone; you just want the dough. To be sure you’ll even use a fake gun.
More than 40% of Georgia's students are absent from school each year for six or more days; 8.7% are absent more than 15 days. Foster children do appreciably better than students in the general population do. Only about 30% of all foster children miss six or more days from school. Students cannot learn unless they are in class. They have to be present and they have to be engaged. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, speaks to this problem with American education and culture. He proposes that Asians do better than Americans do academically, not because of some innate intelligence, but purely because they go to school more. American children spend 180 days in school versus the 280 days that Asian students spend. He says, “For its poorest students, America doesn’t have a school problem; it has a summer-vacation problem.” Does Georgia want to close the gap between rich and poor students? If so, get rid of summer vacation in its poorest school districts. The same postulate can be made with chronic absences. A child who is absent from school cannot learn. Absences reflect other fundamental problems faced by the student: the quality of the school, the stability of the family, the lack of transportation, the lack of health care, the unavailability of childcare and a parent who may be working long hours, for low pay and little flexibility. Absences speak to whether or not we are meeting the needs of a child and supporting the family. Gladwell was not off the mark with his assessment. Research shows that absences matter because they adversely affect academic success in the future. There is a direct correlation between the number of days absent and performance in math and reading in the later grades. Absence is linked with juvenile crime. One Colorado study found that 90% of detained juveniles had a history of school absences; 80% of those who were high school dropouts were excessively absent.
Disproportionate minority contact and detention of status offenders are the core issues for Georgia’s juvenile justice system, according to Joseph Vignati, Justice Programs Coordinator at the Governor’s Office for Children and Families. Vignati will testify at a hearing on reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act in Washington D.C. this week. He speaks with a loud voice, because he’s also the National Juvenile Justice Specialist for the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, representing 56 states and territories. Vignati says the JJDP Act requires states to focus on four core issues:
Removing juvenile offenders from adult jails
Separating juveniles from adults if they are held in the same lockup
Disproportionate minority contact
Minimizing the detention of status offenders
He believes the first two issues are less significant now than they were 20 years ago, because Georgia and other states have laws against housing children with adults, and separate detention centers for kids. Vignati points out, “In FY 2009 we had only 23 juveniles locked up as adults across the state, and 20 of them lied about their age.