Youth In Adult Prisons: young black prisoner with back to camera in orange prison uniform looking at white wall of doors and interior windows

Human rights group urges resentencing of tens of thousands who, convicted in their teens, have spent decades behind bars

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While locked in a California prison for juveniles, Paul Bocenegra got his first shave, sprouted his first patch of chest hair and, he said, learned to fight at that facility, dubbed "gladiator school" because of its levels of violence. "I was condemned to prison to die in a cage at 17 years old," said Bocanegra, now 48, who was tried as an adult in 1992 and served 25 years of what was supposed to be a life-without-parole prison sentence.

Florida: Very large circle of people hold hands indoors

As youths face hefty court fines, some states find new ways for them to pay for their crimes

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Courts have long mandated fees, aiming to hold youth accountable, deter them from future crime and often to cover the justice system’s administrative and other costs. Yet, advocates of juvenile justice reform contend that those conventional methods of demanding accountability from young offenders are counterproductive, neither serving the interests of youth nor their victims

Juvenile Sentencing: Two policeman holding Black male teen between them walt around whote police car in a grassy park

Minorities are less likely than whites to bypass courts for community-based rehabilitation, new analysis finds

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Citing, among others, the case of a Black boy who first was incarcerated, at 14, for stealing candy and, at 16, died at a restrictive wilderness camp where he was sent for violating curfew and other parole violations, this new report from The Sentencing Project suggests that U.S. courts divert comparatively fewer minority youth into community-based service or other rehabilitation. And diversion, overall, is sought less often than it should be.

Juvenile Justicee Reform: Black man with short black hair and beard wearing white t-shirt with green grass and trees in the background

In historic shift, far fewer teens face adult US courts

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A significant shift away from the "get tough" philosophy of the 1980s and '90s for youth offenders, has resulted in far fewer children being prosecuted in U.S. adult courts. That has meant second chances for untold thousands of youths.

JJIE HUB Latest: Juvenile Juctice Center modern red brick and cement building with black sign

JJIE Resource Hub: Federal funds to slash student suspensions; trying adults as children; and other topics

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Unspent American Rescue Plan funds to lower the number of students who wind up in the juvenile justice system. The impact of racial disparities resulting from handling children through the adult criminal justice system. Innovative law school partnerships to aid youth simultaneously in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. How children without lawyers fare in immigration proceedings...  Juvenile Justice Resource Hub curates those and other analyses, reviews and research on juvenile justice policy, practice, reform and programs.

JJIE Hub Latest: Closeup of adult dark-skinne hands locking handcuff around young person of color wrist.

Latest on the Hub: Nov 2021

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Racial disparities among juvenile detainees; declining juvenile detentions amid COVID-19; and the impact of criminally charging only those at least 18 years old are topics recently addressed by a range of governmental, academic and nonprofit entities.