The House Juvenile Justice and Family Issues Committee on Wednesday voted to approve a bill that would raise the age of criminal responsibility in Texas from 17 to 18.  

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — For some juvenile offenders, their choice is straight out of Hamlet: to act or not to act.

Shakespeare & Company, a theater company in Lenox, Massachusetts, works with the courts to get youngsters who run afoul of the law sentenced to perform works of Shakespeare onstage as an alternative to community service or juvenile detention.

Court officials are urging lawmakers to approve what they called a long-overdue interim study of the state’s juvenile court system. The proposal follows a study conducted over the past interim on the adult correctional system.

As Policy Watch has noted in recent weeks, support for “raise the age” legislation seems to be growing in North Carolina among both political parties and law enforcement. This week, it’s getting another thumbs up from leaders in Wake County, which operates the state’s largest public school system. - See more at: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2017/03/20/wake-county-leaders-push-raise-age-legislation/#sthash.H7kuVNmo.dpuf

The widespread misconception means records that people think are blocked from view can come back to haunt them later in life.

King County (WA) juvenile justice and youth services leaders held a press roundtable last Friday, March 10, to provide the latest update on the newest programs focusing on community engagement and restorative justice.

Three states that have led a trend toward once again trying 16- and 17-year-olds as juveniles have seen falling juvenile crime and stable costs.

That’s a major finding of the Justice Policy Institute’s report, “Raising the Age: Shifting to a Safer and More Effective Juvenile Justice System,” according to the organization’s press release. The report, released March 7, looks at the results of “raising the age” in seven states that have done that in the past 10 years: Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

A controversial practice of routinely handcuffing and chaining children who appear in juvenile court has been stopped by Jefferson District Judge David Holton, to the delight of children's advocates and public defenders who have decried the practice since it began in 2011.

The state Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would make correctional officers in juvenile prisons mandatory reporters for child abuse and neglect.

HOUSTON (KTRK) --

ABC13 Investigates has learned Harris County's Juvenile Probation Department recently transferred dozens of severely mentally ill juveniles from a psychiatric hospital to the downtown detention center. The move comes after the department canceled its contract with the Harris County Psychiatric Center on January 31.

A proposal to limit the discretionary power prosecutors wield in charging juveniles as adults in Florida has surfaced once again in the Legislature.

For several years, versions of a bill to change how minors end up in adult court have failed. But state Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, a co-sponsor of this year's SB 192, said he is optimistic the measure will move forward this time given the shift in valuing rehabilitation over punishment.