All in Ideas and Opinions

THE LONG-TERM COSTS OF FINING JUVENILE OFFENDERS

Over the past several years, there has been a great deal of research detailing how fines and fees in the adult criminal-justice system drive already impoverished people into debt, increase rates of recidivism, and lead to the incarceration of people simply because they can’t pay their court bills. In March, 2016, lawyers within the civil-rights division of the Department of Justice wrote a scathing letter to their colleagues detailing how monetary punishments caused thousands of people to “face repeated, unnecessary incarceration for nonpayment despite posing no danger to the community.” This past spring, the Vera Institute of Justice launched a new initiative that will examine how fines and fees lead to an “overreliance on local incarceration that exacts significant unnecessary costs on individuals.”

New Report Questions New Jersey’s Juvenile Justice System

“Youth prisons are failing our children in this state, but particularly our children of color,” explained Andrea McChristian from the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.

If you take a look inside New Jersey’s juvenile justice system you’ll see the racial disparities laid bare. Seventy-five percent of incarcerated kids are black. That gap among races is the third-highest in the country.

Guest Post: Some juvenile defendants still denied justice through lack of counsel

A sometimes overlooked part of the justice system is the one which deals with defendants under the age of 18: juvenile justice. And though the United States has made great progress in how we treat errant teenagers, there are still problems, particularly with providing young defendants with adequate — or any — counsel. On the 50th anniversary of the case which enshrined a juvenile’s right to counsel, top Justice Department officials Karol Mason and Lisa Foster write about the work still to be done.

Girls in juvenile justice: Treating the victim as a criminal

Too often, girls end up in Maryland's juvenile justice system not because they are a danger to society but because society is a danger to them. The are far more likely to have suffered physical, sexual or emotional abuse than boys who are committed to juvenile facilities, yet they tend to receive harsher punishments for lesser offenses — and get fewer chances for rehabilitation and education. When they act out in anger, fear or frustration at circumstances they did not create and cannot control, they are too often treated as criminals, not victims, a self-fulfilling prophecy that puts them at even greater risk.

Facing problems, Missouri revamped juvenile justice

In Missouri, large institutions were replaced with small facilities, closer to offenders' homes. Teens live in pods of 10 with two counselors. They wear their own clothes, sleep in dorm-style rooms and address the staff by first names.

Mark Steward, retired Director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services and founder Missouri Youth Services Institute. (Photo: Missouri Youth Services Institute)

The doors are locked for the high-risk offenders, but no matter the setting, the focus is on therapy instead of controlling the youth, said Mark Steward, one of the architects of the Missouri system. They are reporting a much higher success rate than Wisconsin

Beyond Bars: Keeping Young People Safe At Home And Out Of Youth Prisons

The National Collaboration for Youth, which represents national youth serving organizations around the country such as YMCA’s, Girls and Boys Clubs, Generations United and my organization, Youth Advocate Programs, recently released the report, Beyond Bars: Keeping Young People Safe at Home and Out of Youth Prisons. The report promotes a new community-solutions oriented approach for justice-involved young people, and makes the case that systems and communities should close youth prisons and develop an array of strong community supports for young people in conflict with the law.

Judge or jury: Who should resentence juvenile lifers?

The 2012 Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama held that mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles were unconstitutional.

The court’s 2016 decision in Montgomery v. Louisiana said the Miller decision was retroactive, meaning that everyone sentenced to life without parole as a juvenile is entitled to have their sentences reconsidered.

The next legal question for juvenile lifers that could potentially come from the United States Supreme Court is whether a jury or judge should be the one to consider and impose the new sentences.

Moving Police Officers From Enforcers to Protectors

“I hate the police” and other comments, profanity-filled, are shouted to Houston Police officers as they enter a classroom filled with teenagers. This is week one of the 11-week Teen and Police Service (TAPS) Academy. Mistrust is high as these adjudicated youth meet their TAPS officers for the first time.

Through a Texas Education Agency-approved curriculum that grants one high school credit to students upon completion, TAPS Academy officers and teens alike learn about conflict mediation, police interaction, drugs avoidance, bullying, safe driving, date violence reduction, bullying and other subjects to create mutual understanding and respect among each other. 

Sgt. Paul Pardue: Initiative has reduced juvenile arrests

The Racial and Ethnic Disparities Initiative of the Alachua County Sheriff's Office is not only working, it is changing the lives of our citizens.

The R.E.D. initiative started back in 2012 long before it had a name. The School Resource Bureau changed its policies when our on-campus arrest numbers reached the hundreds and were way out of control. We stopped arresting for probation violations and petty misdemeanor crimes and started doing what we were supposed to do - educate our children.

Philly locks up kids for truancy, fighting - then goes after parents for child support

Last summer, Kameelah Davis-Spears was just one year out of homelessness. She’d found a house for herself and her four children in West Philadelphia using a Section 8 voucher. And, between food stamps and her job, doing inventory for $10.20 an hour, she was finally making it from one paycheck to the next.

Then, she began getting letters: The city Department of Human Services (DHS) was going after her for child support.

Why Lawmakers Are Ending Court Fees For Kids

When minors face criminal charges, their parents often face financial ones. That’s true throughout the country.

In some California Counties for instance, it can cost as much as $30 per-day for room and board for parents whose children are locked up inside juvenile hall. The bills don’t stop there. When kids are strapped with ankle monitors or assigned a probation officer, parents are often charged for that as well.