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All in Juvenile Justice News
Recognizing social media’s power to amplify gang disputes and relying on longstanding Illinois law that allows restricting the associations of those under court supervision, Cook County judges are clamping down on teen defendants’ social media postings.
WASHINGTON — Young black girls in D.C. are 30 times more likely to be arrested than white girls and boys of the same age, a new study shows.
A long-awaited, 72-bed home for youthful offenders convicted of serious crimes is complete and ready to open in Avoyelles Parish. A key feature of Louisiana's 15-year-old effort to overhaul its juvenile justice system, the Acadiana Center for Youth is intended to provide a therapeutic environment for kids in southwest Louisiana.
For the foreseeable future, though, the center is more likely to be used as an emergency shelter in a disaster, if anything at all, according to a spokesman for the Division of Administration.
Michigan is one of only five states that automatically prosecute all 17-year-old offenders as adults. Lawmakers introduced bills last year to raise the age of adult criminal liability to 18, but put the discussion on hold while a consulting firm conducted a cost study to determine the proposal’s financial impact. The study’s completion in early March has put the ball back in the legislature’s court. Although imperfect, the study can help policymakers with their efforts to enact the change, and Michigan should lose no time in joining the other states that have already done so.
As recently as 2005, the state of Virginia had eight centers like Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Facility, housing more than 1,300 delinquent youth. But by 2017, after a series of reforms, that number had shrunk to one.
The state can be held liable for teens raped in Michigan prisons, after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled a state law that halted civil rights at the prison gate was unconstitutional.
In a 2-1 decision released Tuesday, a Court of Appeals panel threw out a 1999 law that said the state’s civil rights law, the Elliott Larson Civil Rights Act, doesn’t apply to prisoners.
...Put another way, in 2014, 3.1 percent of 18- to 23-year-olds in the Netherlands were tried as juveniles, while 2.1 percent of 16 and 17-year-olds were tried as adults. By 2016, only .2 percent of 16 and 17-year-olds were tried as adults while 4.7 percent of 18 to 23-year-olds were tried as juveniles.
Much of the legislative action is a response to Fight Club, published by the Times/Herald last year. The six-part series examined pervasive violence within juvenile lockups and residential programs — some of it instigated by workers and rewarded with treats — widespread sexual misconduct, medical neglect and lax personnel practices that encouraged the hiring of unqualified workers with unsavory pasts.
SEATTLE - For more than seven hours Monday protesters opposed to King County’s new juvenile courthouse and jail chained themselves together outside the construction site and blocked the heavy equipment from coming and going.
They yelled, chanted and held up signs. It marked the second time in weeks that protesters have blocked traffic in an effort to stop the nearly $200 million facility from being built. The protest is in its sixth year.
Alabama lawmakers are one step closer to overhauling the state’s juvenile justice system after the House passed a bill aimed at keeping low-level offenders out of detention. Thursday’s vote was 69-20 after more than three hours of heated debate and multiple amendments.
School district leaders in two Eastern North Carolina counties are partnering with local law enforcement to keep students who commit low-level offenses out of court.
Costly residential facilities are being replaced with effective community-based programs
Children entrenched in Arkansas' juvenile probation system often find themselves without needed help because of overworked officers and judges who won't change the way they handle cases.
A Jan. 8 riot at the Juvenile Detention Center - coupled with a rise in violent crimes involving juveniles - has reignited calls for reform from O'Malley and city council members. The Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court's administrative judge said she would be open to a process to allow dangerous inmates to be held in a separate wing at the adult Cuyahoga County Jail. But that would require a change in state law, and advocates argue it would run counter to the juvenile court's core mission of rehabilitating young offenders.
O'Malley pointed to the Montgomery County Juvenile Court's Intervention Center as a possible inspiration for criminal justice reform in Cuyahoga County. The Intervention Center assesses young offenders in the hours after an arrest to determine if there are any underlying issues -- such mental health or behavioral issues, or problems at home or at school -- that could be addressed through specialized services.
Symon Gooding had been on the fast track at the Department of Juvenile Justice, having been promoted twice in as many years. With her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice — and credits toward a master’s in public administration — she seemed precisely the type of person administrators were looking for. They called her an agency “treasure.”
But in her upward climb in law enforcement, Gooding applied for a higher-paying job at the Miami Gardens Police Department that required a polygraph test.
A significant spike in juvenile crime from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on school days has led to a push by the state’s juvenile justice agency to shift school start and finish times.
Dozens of juveniles were charged last year in Chicago for allegedly pointing guns at motorists and stealing their cars, but most were not detained longer than 24 hours, according to court records obtained by the Sun-Times.
SACRAMENTO (AP) – A state lawmaker and reform groups are pushing to bar officers from carrying pepper spray in juvenile jails in California, one of six states that still allow employees to patrol with the caustic chemicals in youth detention facilities.
Gov. Greg Abbott is replacing two top officials for the scandal-plagued juvenile justice agency still adjusting to a new executive director who took the helm last month.
The shooting of 16-year-old Joseph Haynes during a scuffle with 43-year-old Deputy Richard Scarborough outside a magistrate’s courtroom in the Franklin County Courthouse Downtown on Jan. 17 has prompted an online petition demanding, among other things, that deputies no longer carry guns in Juvenile Court.
