Youth Today
Posts By Tamar Birckhead
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1.3KGuest Opinion EssayYouth Workers Need to Be Alert to Juveniles Placed in Solitary
Sometimes it takes a tragic and heartrending story of a single human being to move broad public policy. In the instance of...
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865Guest Opinion Essay
Some Courts Recreating Debtors’ Prison
Across the U.S., even minor criminal charges can create insurmountable debt burdens for already-struggling families.
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2.2KGuest Opinion Essay
Inaction and Unbudging Tally Keeps Our Juvenile Courts the Same
I try to remain conscious of my own role in perpetuating a system of racial and socioeconomic inequality. Have I failed to...
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Reflections on Miller v. Alabama: Roses, Thorns and Buds
To generate some (hopefully) meaningful conversation around our dinner table, I have begun to use a tool that my daughters picked up...
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Suspecting Parents Doesn’t Protect Kids — Training and Partnership Do
In one of the North Carolina counties in which I practice law, juvenile delinquency court is held every other week. During these...
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Guest Opinion Essay
Let’s Change How Police Question Young Suspects
When I had been practicing in North Carolina’s juvenile courts for about a year, I represented a client charged in the same...
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In the Eye of the Storm: Remembering the Most Vulnerable
As with most natural disasters, the attention of the media was initially centered on the havoc wrecked by Hurricane Sandy. We were...
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Juvenile Hall is Often No Place for Kids
DURHAM, N.C. — The local detention center where my juvenile clients are held while their cases are pending is called the “Youth...
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Guest Opinion Essay
Reconsidering Life Sentences for Juveniles who Kill
In the 1993 book “Dead Man Walking“, Sister Helen Prejean tells the story of people directly impacted by capital punishment – convicted...
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Building Bridges Instead of Walls
Growing up, I lived a short bike ride away from my grandmother. An elementary school reading teacher, she was always a source...
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For Children and Families, It’s a Poorly Mixed World
The academic year has started at the law school where I teach third-year students advocacy skills and legal doctrine in the area of...
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Sentencing Youth as Adults Harms Us All
On August 15, 2012, when most teenagers were enjoying the last few weeks of summer vacation, 16-year-old Fernando Garibay-Benitez was shot in the head outside an apartment...
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Delinquent by Reason of Poverty
With the publication of Michelle Alexander’s provocative book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, our attention has...
