Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/trauma/page/5/)
Jane Guttman’s “Kids in Jail: A Portrait of Life Without Mercy” gives poetic voice to children who are trapped in the catacombs of society with little hope of resurrection. It is a gut-wrenching, graceful and dignified look at lives that are painfully scarred by conditions and circumstances that were preordained out of neglect, abuse, poverty, chance or a combination of all these elements.
Steven Cave’s transformation happened in spite of a system that calls itself correctional but instead, he says, perpetuated his worst traumas, beliefs and behaviors. He entered that system in the state that has sentenced the most minors to life without parole, and where solitary confinement was a favorite method of punishment. In 2013, the Department of Justice found the state’s use of it in several facilities was unconstitutional.
From the federal level to state legislatures across the country, criminal justice reform measures are a hot topic of conversation and proposed legislation. What is often lost in those conversations are the views and voices of victims.
On a cloudy September afternoon in Santa Cruz, California, I am standing in the probation complex parking lot talking on the phone with Chief Probation Officer Fernando Giraldo.
The first indication that the police were following the crowd gathered to...
Instead of hanging out, 35 Coney Island teenagers spent their midwinter vacation last week learning to cope with everyday trauma and avoid dating violence.
“We were trying to make a difference,” says former Rikers Island correctional officer Jamel Shabazz. Now that he’s retired, he still is, as are other people connected to the justice system.
Advocates and activists who have been pushing to close Rikers want to make substantive policy changes for incarcerated youth.
“It’s not enough to close Rikers,” said Iesha Sekou, CEO of nonprofit Street Corner Resources, which works with young people. “We have to make sure young people have a real chance at rehabilitation.”
California youth advocates are fairly pleased with upcoming revisions to the minimum standards governing incarcerated youth but feel there is more work to be done on staff-to-youth ratios and pepper spraying.
Minority youth are more likely to become incarcerated than white youth. This fact is so prevalent that even people outside the juvenile justice field are familiar with the term school-to-prison pipeline.