All posts tagged "Juvenile Justice"

The Unfair Criminalization of Gay and Transgender Youth

Mindful of the Consequences: How Improving the Mental Health of D.C. Youth Benefits the District

The New Jim Crow

There are now two different versions of African-American history. The first is the inspiring story of slaves who were given their freedom...

The Human Cost of Juvenile Life Sentences

Receiving a life sentence is a shock. When the judge said to me, in 1985, “I sentence you to life in prison...

High Court Ruling on Juvenile Life Without Parole Could Impact Many

Hundreds of people like Alabama’s Evan Miller are newly-eligible to appear in front of sentencing judges and perhaps parole boards, as the...

Finding the Time to Make Real Change in Juvenile Justice

It is a fundamental principle in effective supervision of juvenile offenders that the optimal caseload size should be 25. It is still...

UPDATED: Supreme Court Forbids Mandatory Life Sentences Without Parole for Juveniles

UPDATED Tuesday, 9:23 a.m.: WASHINGTON – Advocates for juvenile justice reform applauded the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 5-to-4 ruling yesterday that children under 18...

Justices’ Ruling on Young Killers Eases Anxieties for Some Experts, Advocates

The violence that stains Chicago is a long way from Washington, D.C., where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday it was not...

Citizen Advisers for State Juvenile Justice Programs Gather in DC

WASHINGTON – A mix of around 250 child welfare workers, law enforcement officials, public officials and nonprofit employees from 49 states and territories,...

Good Intentions Running Afoul of Politics

Back in the mid 1990s, we had a brief moment to celebrate progressive reforms in the prison system, a rarity here in...

Suspense Builds in Advance of Supreme Court Ruling on Juvenile Sentencing

While most of the nation anxiously awaits a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the federal health care...

A Punishment Beyond the Punishment

This past weekend I made a trip to Kentucky with my girlfriend, and on the way back we travelled through the north...

Kids and Guns: Two Cities, Two Very Different Approaches to Gun Control

Headlines from Dallas and Chicago over the past few days seem to underscore that the debate over gun rights, following the Trayvon...

L.A. School Police, District Agree to Rethink Court Citations of Students

This story originally appeared on iWatchnews.org by the Center for Public Integrity. In the wake of critical news reports, Los Angeles school police and...

The Heavy Price Society Pays for the No-Daddy Factor

Lennie came to me about 18 months ago, with an attitude. He was a gangbanger and liked to rob people — by...

Juvenile Justice System Secrecy Reduced with Powerful New Tool

Traditionally, juvenile courts have protected children from lasting stigma and emotional trauma through aggressive secrecy, in contrast to their adult counterparts. But...

Drug Courts Effective, New Report Finds

New federal research is giving momentum to the call for reduced penalties and more rehabilitation for drug offenders – including juveniles –...

Department of Justice: The Benefits of Specialized Drug Courts

‘Born, Not Raised’ by Susan Madden Lankford

The most engaging elements came from the kids themselves. Scrawled on the bottom of handouts, the backs of postcards or between the...

For Kids, the Dangers of Plea Agreements

“Everybody in there is innocent, right?” This statement, or some variation of it, usually followed by laughter, comes up in a lot...