Nationally, on any given night, approximately 81,000 youth are confined to juvenile facilities and 10,000 children are held in adult jails and prisons. Approximately 1 in 10 young male high school dropouts is incarcerated or in juvenile detention. For African Americans, that number is 1 in 4. Research shows that just over two million youth under the age of 18 were arrested in 2008. Of these two million, about 95 percent had not been accused of violent crimes. In 2010, of the nearly 100,000 youth under the age of 18 who were serving time in a juvenile residential placement facility, 26 percent had been convicted of property crimes only, such as burglary, arson, or theft. Access to education both stems the tide of incarceration and improves inmates chances of re-acclimating to society after their release.
“The number of children charged as adults in Philadelphia has been cut in half under District Attorney Larry Krasner, according to a review of court records by The Appeal. In the two years before Krasner took office, an average of 127 children were charged as adults. In 2018, Krasner’s first year in office, that number fell to less than 50, The Appeal found.“
The Appeal
August 30, 2019
Read More“At this juvenile hall, young people can take classes taught by community college instructors from nearby College of San Mateo through a program called Project Change. It’s one of only a handful of programs of its kind in the state, and it was one of the very first. Some California lawmakers have taken note. Now they’re pushing to bring college classes to juvenile detention facilities around the state.“
Capital Public Radio
August 21, 2019
Read More“Wimbish and his 24-hour-a-day staff run the Tidewater Youth Services Commission's apartment living program, which teaches young men just out of Bon Air — or a state commitment to a local detention center — how to live on their own. They learn to cook, keep a home clean, budget and get along with others. (They don't know their roommates, who are fellow program participants, beforehand.) The apartments are contracted and paid for by the Department of Juvenile Justice. The programs serves eight people at any one time for periods of six months to a year each.“
The Virginian-Pilot
August 18, 2019
Read More“We need a new vision for youth justice, one with love as its organizing principle that defines healing, restoration and renewal as its core objectives. This vision challenges the notion that youth who have been involved in and impacted by violence must be incarcerated to achieve public safety. In short, such a new vision asks what we would want for our own children.“
Governing Institute
August 16, 2019
Read More“A critical resource in this equation was a credible messenger -- a community-rooted, transformative mentor who shares similar life experiences with the youth they engage. Credible messengers build trusting relationships with youth and families as they guide them through a process of growth, taking accountability for harm caused, and redemption.“
Governing Institute
August 16, 2019
Read More“This program helps police officers take that initiative a few steps further by creating a deeper bond between two different groups of people, Maddrey said. Now, officers are taking an interest in young people, following up and being a part of their life.“
Juvenile Justice Information Exchange
July 16, 2019
Read More“The city of St. Louis is considering a new effort to combat violent crime modeled after Cure Violence, a program that began in Chicago and aims to interrupt conflict and change the culture in crime-afflicted neighborhoods.“
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
June 10, 2019
Read More“If the measure passes, it would make San Francisco the largest county in the state — and perhaps in the nation — to operate without any secure confinement facility. While the city’s advocacy community has roundly supported the proposal, San Francisco’s chief probation officer has opposed the plan. “
Chronicle of Social Change
June 3, 2019
Read More“Even without the research gold standard of double-blind randomized controlled trials, school-based restorative justice is considered a promising practice, with virtually all states in the nation having adopted it in some form. Very few studies, however, focus on the potential of restorative justice to reduce racial disparities in school discipline. Oakland, California, and Denver, Colorado, are leading the way.”
Salon
April 21, 2019
Read More“Advocates see Close to Home, launched in New York City in 2012 when Michael Bloomberg was mayor, as one model that can be increasingly replicated nationwide. Rather than funneling children who had been determined by a Family Court judge to be “delinquent” to rural prisons, Close to Home allowed them, as the name suggests, to stay in rehabilitative facilities, usually group homes, near their families, allowing for visits and family counseling.“
The Nation
April 8, 2019
Read More“The fight for restorative justice is set against the backdrop of a district in crisis. Oakland Unified leaders say millions of dollars in budget cuts and school closures are required to keep the district solvent in the coming years. Meanwhile, teachers are poised to strike over a number of issues including pay and class sizes.“
EdSource
February 12, 2019
Read More“The stunning transmission of criminality from parents to kids doesn’t mean that some families are cursed to an eternity of crime: There’s no immutable “crime gene” that’s passed down from generation to generation.“
The Atlantic
October 22, 2018
Read More“He has a diagnosed mental illness. They call it disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. It can cause frequent, intense outbursts. He has had an Individualized Education Plan for emotional disturbance since he was in kindergarten. His mother lugs around four backpacks crammed with documents describing his challenges and his medical and behavioral needs. Still, she struggles to get him the support he needs at school.“
The Tennessean
September 10, 2018
Read More"Researchers contend that convicted youth who are served in the community are significantly less likely to re-offend than if they are confined—regardless of their offense type—making everyone in the community safer. Assigning young people to community-based supervision is also significantly more cost-effective than confinement, and it mitigates the disproportionate impact of confinement in the justice system on youth of color, authors wrote."
The Crime Report
September 5, 2018
Read More"In general, research has suggested that even one arrest leads to about a 50 percent increased risk of dying young. And when youth are detained, the risk increases again, and long-term incarceration increases it even more."
Undark
July 16, 2018
Read More"One byproduct of this shift is the emptying of youth correctional facilities across the country. Recent data suggest that there were nearly 1,300 fewer facilities operating in 2016 than in 2000. This raises a question: What is happening to these places? And, more importantly, what potential do they hold?"
The Governing Institute
June 28, 2018
Read More"Almost two-thirds of young people who come in contact with law enforcement in Santa Cruz County are diverted away from the formal juvenile justice system and connected to the education, counseling or mental health services that they need. Santa Cruz prioritizes this individual approach because it works, it’s better for youth and it saves taxpayers money."
Santa Cruz Sentinel
June 10, 2018
Read More