Child Welfare
Steve Gravelle of SourceMedia Group News reports on the alarming foster care disparity in Linn County, Iowa, where 35 percent of kids taken into care are black in a county where the population is 4 percent black.
Jeremy Olson of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Sunday on the Safe Families program, which allows parents in crisis to place their children in another home temporarily before the formal child welfare system gets involved. Yesterday, Olson ran a follow-up with concerns about the program from national watchdog Richard Wexler, who sees the program as “sugar-coated foster care.”
Education/Jobs
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Young Men’s Initiative is a win-win for New Yorkers, write Glenn Martin and Andrea Batista Schlesinger in the Huffington Post. Earlier this month, the Post ran a column on the initiative by New York Civil Rights Coalition head Michael Meyers, who believes the initiative discriminates by focusing exclusively on Latino and black men.
Juvenile Justice
The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange reports on the retirement of Judge Aaron Cohn, who will step down tomorrow at the age of 95 after 46 years in juvenile court.
While Oklahoma begins to empty out its controversial maximum-security juvenile facility, reports Randy Ellis of the Oklahoman, a nighttime attack at a medium security one has riled up concerns about secure options for serious offenders.
