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.
“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“Fonda has teamed up with Los Angeles-based Homeboy Industries, a youth program aimed at providing hope, training, and support to ex-cons and former gang members. Activists say the programs interrupt the School-to-Prison Pipeline and reduce the number of young people in the criminal justice systems. Governor Newsom has vowed to end juvenile imprisonment in California as it stands.“
KSRO Sonoma County
June 21, 2019
Read More“I’ve been studying the juvenile justice system in my high school, learning what happens to kids who make mistakes and commit crimes. Even though kids sometimes make very bad choices by getting involved in very bad crimes (maybe the worst choices of their lives, so far), kids’ brains are not yet developed. As a result, the lack of impulse control from their developing brains contributes to children making very bad choices for a variety of reasons. Any adult who interacts with kids knows what I’m talking about.“
The Gazette
June 16, 2019
Read More““This dramatic decrease in youth incarceration has been driven by adopting approaches to youth justice that hold incarceration as a last resort,” said Craig DeRoche, senior vice president of Prison Fellowship. “
Yahoo Finance
June 12, 2019
Read More“Across the nation, children and teens who commit crimes are routinely ordered to pay their victims restitution for damaged property, lost wages and medical bills, leaving many saddled with a financial burden that can follow them long into adulthood. Just a half-dozen states cap these payments, which often reach into the tens of thousands of dollars, according to a Marshall Project review of five years of cases in 10 states that collect data on juvenile restitution.“
The Marshall Project
June 11, 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“Among the key changes was the serious youthful offender provision, also known as blended sentences. Youth offenders could be given dual sentences, one starting out in the juvenile system, typically a facility of the Ohio Department of Youth Services, followed by a potential term in adult prison hinging on the defendant’s behavior in juvenile lockup as well as their conduct on parole.“
The Canton Republic
June 9, 2019
Read More“Probation can be a source of support and positive engagement, but too often it is the cause of young people getting locked up. Many youths are locked up over violations of probation for small infractions and can be further affected by individual decisions made by probation officers who don’t necessarily have the best interest of youths in mind.“
San Francisco Chronicle
June 9, 2019
Read More“The ordinance requires the creation of a task force to develop home-like and rehabilitative centers in San Francisco to house youth offenders, including a secure site for those who pose a public safety threat. The board must review and approve final plans six months prior to the closure.“
San Francisco Chronicle
June 4, 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“Busette began the panel discussion with a foundational question: ‘When we talk about juvenile records, what are we talking about?’ A salient theme was the common misconception that records are exclusive to the court system. In reality, they are extensive and diverse, routinely distributed across a wide spectrum of parties comprising law enforcement, housing, schools, and other entities.“
Brookings Institute
May 30, 2019
Read More“Incidents of children this young committing homicide are rare. But when they happen, they rock communities and test our collective will to remain steadfast in the belief that there is no such thing as a bad kid. These are horribly tragic events, but our government systems should not compound that tragedy by throwing a child in need of rehabilitation into an adult system that is often focused only on punishment. “
USA Today
May 29, 2019
Read More“The expanded policy will allow teens suspected of offenses including first- and second-degree armed robbery, assault and burglary to qualify for the program, according to the Post. A spokeswoman for the mayor's office told the Post that the policy expansion would roughly triple the number of teens who could qualify for release without bail ahead of their court dates.“
The Hill
May 28, 2019
Read More“Still in her first month as the new director of the parish's Department of Juvenile Services, Wade exudes excitement as she discusses her plans for the city-parish agency, which includes the youth jail, probation and family services. Despite the challenges she knows lie ahead, including operating an aging facility built in 1952, Wade's determined to bring hope to the vulnerable population the juvenile system is meant to serve.“
The Advocate
May 28, 2019
Read More“Without leaders committed to helping heal incarcerated, traumatized youths and implement rehabilitative methods to improve the system, the problems will only continue to worsen and conditions will become increasingly dangerous. “
LA Times
May 28, 2019
Read More“In Sylmar, the conditions were so alarming that Gardner penned a three-page letter to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. In it, he described the officer-turned-whistleblower’s concerns about staff working to a “breaking point” because of officers calling in sick and the intense conditions requiring forced overtime among those who did report to work. “
LA Times
May 19, 2019
Read More“The district attorney said police officers and Juvenile Court judges have been pressured to go easy on youthful offenders, although he declined to identify the sources of that pressure. He also criticized a shift mandated by the City Council to arrest fewer juveniles for low-level “status offenses” like truancy and curfew violations. “
The Advocate
May 16, 2019
Read More“Moira O’Neill, director of the OCA, said communication is key to preventing the long-term negative effects on a child’s mental and physical health that studies have shown can come from exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), including parental incarceration. “We need to lessen the negative impact on a child’s well-being and development in difficult circumstances,” she said.“
New Hampshire Union Leader
May 11, 2019
Read More“Instead of imposing sentences that help rehabilitate juvenile offenders so they return to their communities with the skills, judgment and motivation to contribute, the system instead broadcasts to 15, 16 and 17-year-olds that they’ve blown their chance at a future and their fate is set, no matter their willingness to make amends. How discouraging that Oregon’s communities would believe themselves to be so fragile.“
The Oregonian
April 28, 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
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