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 case has echoes of Mathena v. Malvo, which is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Both cases revolve around a young, impressionable man alleged to have been influenced by a destructive mentor. And both reflect an ongoing national debate over which young people should be protected from the most severe sentences and be allowed an opportunity for release.“
The Appeal
October 18, 2019
Read More“Meralyn Kirkland got a call last Thursday about her granddaughter, Kaia Rolle. She was told that the 6-year-old girl had been arrested at her Orlando charter school and was going to be taken to a juvenile facility. She reacted the way one might expect. “I say, ‘What do you mean she was arrested?’ ” Kirkland told WKMG. There was “an incident,” Kirkland was told. Kaia had “kicked somebody and she’s being charged.”“
The Appeal
September 24, 2019
Read More“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“However, numerous studies have shown that children charged as adults are far more likely to reoffend than those who enter the juvenile system. One 2003 study in Pennsylvania found that children charged as adults were twice as likely to be rearrested within 18 months than children charged in juvenile court.“
The Appeal
June 27, 2019
Read More“Cannizzaro, who has served in the city since 2009, frequently speaks out about what he sees as an increase in violent youth. ‘The revolving door we complain about at the adult jail has nothing on the cartoonish speed of the one spinning at Juvenile Court,’ he said in February. His office opened 735 juvenile felony cases in 2018.“
The Appeal
April 26, 2019
Read More“Why should people be cut off from the logic of having a separate youth justice system—that people change, that people grow, that people should not be defined by an act—because they are a day over 18? A new Illinois reform (House Bill 531), signed into law this month by Governor J.B. Pritzker, defies the usual pattern that in the United States even bold youth justice reforms stop at the age of majority, if not earlier.“
The Appeal Political Report
April 25, 2019
Read More“The Department of Justice abruptly ended its oversight of juvenile court in Tennessee’s Shelby County in October, saying it “applauds Shelby County’s reform efforts” and declaring it a success. But the department’s own monitor tells a different story: The county is still engaging in “blatantly unfair” practices that hurt children.“
The Appeal
February 1, 2019
Read More"Instead of linking children to services or out-of-home placements through juvenile court adjudication, Senate Bill (SB) 439 would instead direct counties in the state to develop the “least restrictive” alternatives to the juvenile justice system. That could mean a greater reliance on the dependency court system, where child protective services agencies are tasked with providing services to vulnerable children and families."
The Appeal
July 17, 2018
Read More"The YAT program was created in 2001 to identify “at-risk” youth and intervene before they got into more serious trouble. But teachers, school administrators, and law enforcement officials use the program as a form of school discipline, the lawsuit asserts."
The Appeal
July 10, 2018
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