MJDA

Ideas and Opinions, Juvenile Justice News

“They can tell if you care or if you don’t.”

Oct 12

Oct 12 Heroin overdoses continue to climb in Garden City

Substance Abuse

Thirteen people have died from heroin and prescription drug overdoses in Garden City since January and of that number four were in their 50s.

Garden City emergency responders were dispatched to 12 prescription drug overdose calls and 41 heroin overdose calls since the beginning of the year.

Oct 12

Oct 12 Seattle Tries to Curb Heroin Deaths by Offering a Safe Place to Use

Ideas and Opinions, Substance Abuse

Seattle’s supervised injection center will be the first of its kind in the U.S., but New York is already considering a similar plan.

Oct 12

Oct 12 Is Mass Incarceration in America Actually on the Decline?

If you follow the news, you may have heard that there's a bipartisan movement to stop locking up so many Americans. The New York Times recently wrote, “A bipartisan campaign to reduce mass incarceration has led to enormous declines in new inmates from big cities, cutting America’s prison population for the first time since the 1970s.”

Unfortunately for reform advocates, reports of progress towards ending mass incarceration have been greatly exaggerated.

Oct 12

Oct 12 How America Outlawed Adolescence

At least 22 states make it a crime to disturb school in ways that teenagers are wired to do. Why did this happen?

Oct 12

Oct 12 Ava DuVernay’s Netflix film ’13th’ reveals how mass incarceration is an extension of slavery

Ideas and Opinions, Viewing Recommendations

Slavery technically ended over 150 years ago. But Ava DuVernay wants you to take another look at the amendment that abolished it.

Her documentary “13th” is a powerful look at how the modern-day prison labor system links to slavery. The film, which premieres on Netflix and in select theaters Friday, offers a timely and emotional message framed by the upcoming election and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Oct 7

Oct 7 Illinois 'Champions' Honored By Juvenile Justice Initiative

A lot of progress has been made in Illinois, said Elizabeth Clarke, director at the Juvenile Justice Initiative, including a recent law requiring that children under age 15 have a lawyer present when they are questioned by police, and that those sessions are videotaped. And according to Clarke, the number of juveniles incarcerated in the state has declined overall.

Oct 7

Oct 7 Fights Abound at the Overpopulated Harris County Juvenile Detention Center

The Harris County Juvenile Detention Center has kicked into "emergency staffing" mode given the 250-capacity detention center was housing 295 kids as of September 22.

Oct 5

Oct 5 California Legislature Orders Juvenile Justice Data Overhaul

While it’s certain that some Latino youth — born in the United States or not — are in the juvenile justice system across California, it is anyone’s guess how many and how their journey through the system affects them.

Oct 5

Oct 5 Juvenile justice in Missouri — problems and solutions

In 1957, Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House, Elvis topped the charts with “All Shook Up,” and Missouri lawmakers wrote the state’s juvenile code.

The system’s basic structure hasn’t changed in 60 years. And in 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice raised questions about how well that structure protects the rights of the kids who come into the system.

Oct 4

Oct 4 New law lets young adult offenders serve time in juvenile detention

Three-year pilot program will give 18- to 21-year-olds chance to access educational, support services.

Oct 4

Oct 4 How America Is Battling Its Horrific Opioid Epidemic

THAT WE’RE IN the middle of a horrific opioid epidemic is no longer news. In bathrooms, bedrooms, and alleyways across the country, people are overdosing and dying every day. So we need to start talking about solutions. As Congress finally earmarks funding for public health initiatives, doctors, prosecutors, police, and local lawmakers are fighting to slow the death toll in their communities—with wildly different strategies.

Sep 30

Sep 30 The Lessons of California for Juvenile Justice Reform

Those who equate juvenile justice reform with better institutions should consider the California lesson. For the past 13 years, the state’s youth correctional system operated under court monitoring due to its failure to provide rehabilitative services or a safe environment.

Sep 27

Sep 27 The most significant criminal justice reform of Obama's tenure could reach his desk very soon

Viewing Recommendations, Reading Recommendations

Even though the year began with strong bipartisan support for federal sentencing reform, no major changes to the criminal justice system have made it out of Congress thanks to a combination of legislative gridlock, election-year rhetoric about rising crime in some cities, and Republican reluctance to hand President Obama a major victory.

But on Thursday, the House of Representatives quietly — and overwhelmingly — passed what might be the most significant justice reform measure to reach Obama in his tenure.

Promoting Racial Equity in Trauma-Informed Care/Services to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disproportionality and Disparities in Child Welfare

Sep 27

Sep 27 Promoting Racial Equity in Trauma-Informed Care/Services to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disproportionality and Disparities in Child Welfare

Lisa Greco

Khatis Waheed presents on Courageous Conversations: Leading with Race and using an Equity Lens.

Sep 27

Sep 27 'Refuse to lose': Teen inspired inside juvenile detention helping others

Kevin Barnwell

Facility News

MUSKEGON, MI -- Change how you think. Change how you feel.

That's some of the advice Tyya Cunningham received from mentor Leslie King, founder and director of Sacred Beginnings.

Cunningham, 16, of Muskegon, is going through the Lighthouse Girls Treatment Program, which is part of the 20th Circuit Court Family Division.

Sacred Beginnings is a Grand Rapids-based nonprofit that works with human trafficking victims.

Sep 27

Sep 27 Thirteen States Have No Minimum Age for Adult Prosecution of Children

Thirteen states have not imposed a minimum age for prosecuting a child as an adult, leaving eight-, nine-, and ten-year-old children vulnerable to extreme punishment, trauma, and abuse within adult jails and prisons.

Sep 20

Sep 20 Degree of difficulty: Is college still worth the cost? Usually

Education

It’s a distortion that’s oft-repeated, and refuses to die: Legions of college grads working long hours as baristas, their expensive degrees wasted after not finding a job in their chosen fields.

Sep 20

Sep 20 School choice producing segregation in districts across the state

Education

Holland, Mich. – For more than a decade, Holland Public Schools has watched its enrollment fall, prompting the closure – and demolition – of multiple schools.

The decline is not the result of an aging community with fewer, school-age children. Rather, it’s largely a reflection of Michigan’s generous school choice policies. Choice has, consciously or not, left districts like Holland not only scrambling for students, but more racially segregated as its white students leave, often for districts that are less diverse.

Sep 16

Sep 16 House Education Committee Backs Bill to Overhaul Federal Juvenile-Justice Law