Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/kids-and-the-law/page/3/)
Is there ever a “good” youth arrest? Even without the use of excessive force, arrest can prove traumatic and destructive and the effects long lasting. One police leader from a small Pennsylvania town recounted the story of a young person who lost his promising future, with a merit-based scholarship to a four-year college, when police arrested him and charged him with a curfew violation.
In a historic moment Monday, President Obama used his executive authority to end the use of solitary confinement for youth in the federal prison system.
When officials in four states were asked several years ago what tools they would need to divert youth from the juvenile justice system, a better understanding of trauma was at the top of all their lists.
When did making adults mad become a crime?
I asked myself this question shortly after I started judging in juvenile court when confronted with a docket inundated with disruptive students referred from the schools. Most were misdemeanor incidents involving fights, disorderly conduct, disrupting school, graffiti and theft.
Individualized justice, economic equality and factual accuracy should supply the science driving reform, not century-old biodeterminism.
NEWNAN, Ga. — It was the fake $100 bill that finally landed Corey Roberts in prison.
He’d already had one close call, getting picked up for marijuana possession at the end of his freshman year in college.
Increasingly, juvenile justice advocates and system partners are calling for the closure of large, prison-like youth facilities. While these reforms are critically important given the research showing the dangers of confinement — particularly for low-risk youth — the practical reality is that reaching such a paradigm shift will not happen overnight.
The art of leadership, some say, is not in finding followers, but in creating more leaders.
Something I wish I had thought about when I first developed the school-justice partnership.
The solitary confinement policies for youth vary widely in Nebraska, with stays of weeks and even months permitted in some facilities, says a new report from the ACLU of Nebraska.
Champions for change is key to reform. No champions, no change.
No matter the number of evidence-based programs we identify, and the best approaches and models to deliver them, they are meaningless unless someone calls attention to them.