All in Ideas and Opinions

Is it now inevitable that all states will raise the age?

This year, legislators in both New York and North Carolina took great steps towards improving public safety and providing meaningful rehabilitative services to young people across their states. Elected leaders in both of these states raised the age at which youth will be handled in family court, joining the growing national consensus that youth under 18 years of age should not be in the adult criminal justice system.

Choose community programs over youth prisons to punish juveniles

Sometimes Congress gets it right. This summer, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security held a hearing on juvenile justice reform. The hearing was a call to end the draconian practices of institutionalizing America’s juvenile offenders. The committee's chairman, U.S Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) stated in his opening remarks, “We can all agree that Juvenile offenders must be treated differently than adult offenders.”

For juvenile offenders, art can be an outlet

PEORIA — Unusually long and wide, the main hallway at the Peoria County Juvenile Detention Center would be intimidating if there weren’t the giant frog at one end.

The frog sits on a lily pad in a placid blue pond surrounded by cattails and a perfect summer sky, offering respite in a very serious setting. Between the vibrant color, the charming kid-friendly illustration, and the wonders of the natural world, the scene is a pleasant oasis for both the center’s young residents and the adults who work there.

Gouging families with kids in detention serves no one. California should make it stop

The California Legislature should pass Senate Bill 190 and lead a national movement to end the practice of charging parents for the costs of children being in the juvenile justice system. Under current law, counties can charge parents or guardians for detaining minors, as well as for electronic monitors, substance use testing, probation, and home supervision. Such charges yield little net revenue or benefit for the government, but impose enormous financial burdens on families.

Civil Rights Groups In New Jersey Say ‘Youth Prisons Are a New Form of Slavery’ and Should Be Abolished

The New Jersey Training School for Boys has been a youth incarceration center for 150 years and is the state of New Jersey’s largest prison for juveniles. Known as “Jamesburg,” the correctional facility in Monroe Township, N.J., first opened its doors on June 28, 1867, and today houses about 200 boys.

But on Jamesburg’s 150th birthday, a coalition of more than 40 civil rights activists, including the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, the NAACP, the ACLU of New Jersey and members of the clergy, launched a campaign to close the youth prison as well as its counterpart for girls, the Female Secure Care and Intake Facility.