Staff at L.A. County's juvenile halls and camps use pepper spray on kids too often, too quickly, and in situations when it isn't necessary, according to a report issued by the county's inspector general.

Advocates for juvenile justice reform are both optimistic and wary of a proposal to put the California Health and Human Services Agency in charge of the state’s juvenile justice system.

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) - Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris have hired the nation’s leading juvenile justice statistician to help find potential problem areas of inequality and disproportionate minority contact within Juvenile Court.

Several lawmakers, Delegate Jeff Bourne, D-Richmond,  Mike Mullin, D-Newport News and Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, have introduced bills that would limit criminal charges for student misbehavior or classmate beefs.

The bills filed in both the House and Senate would prohibit students from being found guilty of disorderly conduct in school. It’s a charge that could carry jail time.

At long last, federal law on a key juvenile justice policy has been dusted off. On December 21, the day the government shut down, President Trump signed into law the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018, an update to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), which was passed in 1974. It had not been reauthorized since 2002.

Youths awaiting trial in Orleans Parish will no longer be detained simply because their families can’t afford to post bond, New Orleans Juvenile Court judges said.

Delaware’s Family Court started to examine its juvenile drug court program in 2016. It found the number of youth needing the program is dropping because they’re being diverted from the criminal justice system.

WASHINGTON, D.C. ― The Office of Justice Programs Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has released Juvenile Arrests, 2016.

Findings presented in this bulletin show that the number of juvenile arrests in 2016 was at its lowest level since 1980, with much of the decline occurring within the past 10 years.

About 9.8 percent of Texas students were listed as special education in 2016-2017, but 18.4 percent of students sent to alternative schools run by local juvenile justice departments that school year were in special education. They accounted for about 17.7 percent of students placed on out-of-school suspension and 16.3 percent of students sent to district-run disciplinary schools.

The opinion summarized the case as follows:

One of the goals of the juvenile law is reformation and rehabilitation of the minor’s attitude so that he respects the rights of others. Here, appellant seems to think that his felonious conduct is a springboard for braggadocio on the internet. Appellant has First Amendment freedom of speech rights. But the juvenile court may curtail such rights in an appropriate case by a narrowly tailored condition of probation. This is an appropriate case.

On Thursday, Congress passed a bill reauthorizing a major federal juvenile justice crime bill for the first time in 16 years. 

Advocates say the reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) is a huge victory, since its funding has drastically declined over the years and its provisions have become outdated, putting youth charged with crimes at risk.

Citing “a culture of intimidation that undermines due process,” a new report by a Department of Justice monitor on the treatment of African-American youth in Shelby County’s juvenile court challenges the abrupt termination of federal oversight of the court.