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Racial disparities panel releases report

Today Dr Etan Nasreddin-Longo, chair of the Racial Disparities in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice System Advisory Panel, will present the Panel’s report to the Legislative Joint Justice Oversight Committee. The report contains extensive recommendations to the Legislature regarding ways to ameliorate the racial disparities that exist in our criminal and juvenile justice systems. These recommendations include centralizing a bias incident complaint process, significantly expanding data collection efforts, and implementing reforms to reduce racial profiling. The report also discusses root causes of racial disparities and summarizes the Panel’s extensive policy considerations.

Rape is rampant at this women’s prison. Anyone who complains is punished, lawsuit says.

For years, male officers at the women’s work camp at Coleman Federal Correctional Complex sexually harassed and assaulted inmates in what amounted to a “sanctuary” for systemic abuse, a space where they were shielded from any consequences.

If the women complained about being groped, fondled or forced to perform sex acts on officers, the inmates were the ones who were punished.

New York City Council Pushes De Blasio Admin: What’s the Plan for Troubled Youth Detention Centers?

New York City Council confronted Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration today on a steady increase in the use of force in two youth detention facilities.

“We all agree there’s a problem, the numbers lay that out,” said Manhattan Councilman Keith Powers (D), chair of the Criminal Justice Committee, to a group of administration officials who appeared to testify. “What is the game plan between now and next year to improve those numbers? … What programs, services or staffing?”

‘Raise the Age' juvenile initiative in North Carolina begins in December

RALEIGH, N.C. - Significant changes to North Carolina's justice system for young offenders and sex-related offenses begin this weekend.

No longer will 16- and 17-year-olds be automatically tried in adult court for most nonviolent or less serious felonies as the state's long-awaited "Raise the Age" initiative takes effect. Victims of child sex abuse will have more time as adults to seek civil damages against perpetrators. And, a court decision preventing women from legally revoking consent is getting overridden.

Three men exonerated 36 years after being convicted of Baltimore teen's murder

BALTIMORE — Three men have been exonerated, 36 years after being convicted of murdering a 14-year-old Baltimore teenager.

"This journey here for us has been rough," Ransom Watkins said. "We outside them, walls but on the inside — I hate to put it like this — we went through Hell. It wasn’t easy. You see us out here. we’re smiling, we’re happy that we’re free, but we got a lot to fix.”

Videos: Chaos, violence in Georgia’s youth prisons

At Georgia’s seven juvenile prisons, hundreds of surveillance cameras capture the daily violence and chaos that permeate the facilities. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained videos of several incidents involving the use of force by corrections officers at the Sumter Youth Development Campus in Americus. The state Department of Juvenile Justice obscured the faces of juveniles in the videos.

A progressive measure intended to keep preteens out of Cook County jails was effectively struck down by an appellate court

A Cook County ordinance that would keep children under 13 from being jailed cannot be enforced because an appeals court recently ruled the measure conflicts with state law.

Passed in September 2018, the ordinance was lauded by juvenile justice advocates as a progressive step toward reducing the number of incarcerated youth.

After 22 years, educating incarcerated youth still a challenge

In 1993, a lawyer at the Center for Children’s Advocacy brought a lawsuit challenging, among other things, the conditions of confinement at the state’s  juvenile detention centers. Four years later, the court approved an agreement that resulted in the Emily J. Consent Decree, part of which required the state to retool its educational services for juvenile detainees.

Now, after years of studies showing the ways the justice system can affect young people’s education in Connecticut, officials are still grappling with how to improve educational services for kids in the justice system.