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Articles tagged with: Juvenile Justice

Thank You! Advocates are a Powerful Voice at MO Council Hearing

Tracy McClard Friday, 13 February 2015 Posted in 2015, Campaigns

FORMJ

On Tuesday, February 10th, the Missouri Consumer Affairs Committee held a hearing on Missouri’s “Raise the Age” bill, House Bill 300. The bill was introduced by the bill champion, Representatives Ron Hicks (R) who began the hearing by highlighting the main provisions of the bill and the positive changes this would have for 17 year olds in the state of Missouri.

He shared with the Committee the fact that treating 17 year olds automatically as adults has been the law since 1905. Today, youth arrests and detention are down in Missouri and the overwhelming majority of youth are arrested for misdemeanor offenses. 

Supporters of the bill made sure to have a strong presence, and with the leadership of FORJ’s Tracy McClard, the room was packed with supporters to remove 17 year olds from the adult system in Missouri.

What HB 300 “Raise the Age” accomplishes:

1)  Raises the age of juvenile court jurisdiction from 17 to 18: Missouri is currently one of nine states in which a child is automatically charged in the adult criminal system before the age of 18.

2)  Prevents most youth from being held in adult jail while they are awaiting trial.

Nearly a dozen individuals representing several organizations provided testimony at the hearing in favor of the bill. While the testimony covered a wide range of issues associated with youth exposure to the adult criminal justice system, there were a few common themes among the testimonies.

Several witnesses focused on the substantive differences between the services offered at youth facilities and adult facilities and the impact that intervention with the appropriate services can have on these individuals.  The impact on public safety of charging and housing youth in adult facilities was another popular topic. Several witnesses emphasized that these youth will return to society one day and that services in the juvenile system better prepare these youth for reintegration in the community. Multiple witnesses identified research showing recidivism rates were higher for youth held in adult facilities including findings that, “youth prosecuted in the adult system are 34% more likely to reoffend than those in the juvenile system.” Witnesses also noted that charging and holding youth in adult facilities does not deter crime.  

Several witnesses in favor of the bill, including a local sheriff, testified that the recent Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) requirements of sight and sound separation for all youth under 18 in adult facilities provides more motivation to pass this bill now. Otherwise, states will lose precious federal dollars in unable to meet the stringent requirements.

No groups or individuals testified in opposition of the bill further paving the way for passage.

The full text of the bill can be found HERE.  To receive more information about Missouri’s Raise the Age efforts or get involved, please go to FORJ-MO.

Girls in Justice: A Thought-Provoking Glimpse of Girls in the System

Kay Xiao Monday, 02 February 2015 Posted in 2015, Across the Country

“I have interviewed and photographed children in confinement for the better part of a decade. As I sit on the floor of a cell and listen, each story, each child tells is enlightening, but the stories of the girls stir a special compassion.”

This is how Richard Ross, Professor of art at the University of California - Santa Barbara prefaces his newest book Girls in Justice.

With powerful images and first-hand accounts from over 250 detention facilities across the nation, Girls in Justice captures life behind bars and the physical, emotional and mental effects on young women in the criminal justice system. The evocative imagery alludes to the causes of trauma – sexual abuse, drug usage and forced prostitution to name a few – that many young girls in prisons face long before coming into contact with the system, and shocks the reader into questioning the criminal justice system today and its failure to address the underlying causes of delinquent behavior in girls.

The book highlights a harsh reality: girls in custody report nearly two times the rate of past physical abuse, two times the rate of past suicide attempts, and four times the rate of prior sex abuse as boys. In the process, it forces the reader to ask him or herself “what message is the criminal justice system sending to young girls today? Is it helping or further exacerbating the problem?” Ross seems to think the latter. “These girls in detention and commitment facilities are further abused by an organized system that can’t recognize or respond to their history and their needs,” Ross writes.

Girls in Justice is out this month. To order and for more information, visit here.

SAMHSA and MacArthur Launch Initiative to Improve Policies and Programs for Justice-Involved Youth

Wednesday, 28 January 2015 Posted in 2015, Research & Policy

States seeking to develop or improve policies and practices that improve outcomes for justice-involved youth with behavioral health disorders are encouraged to apply to the 2015-16 Improving Diversion Policies and Programs for Justice-Involved Youth with Behavioral Health Disorders: An Integrated Policy Academy Action Network Initiative. Up to four states will be selected to participate in this opportunity, which has proven very successful for the 12 previous Policy Academy participants.

Created by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, this initiative seeks to help states learn about effective interventions and the latest research, and work on similar innovations in policy and practice in a cross-site effort.

Throughout the initiative, special attention will be devoted to the following:

  • Integrated responses to co-occurring mental and substance use disorders
  • Research-based screening and assessment
  • Evidence-based and promising-practice approaches
  • Disparity in treatment of youth of color within the juvenile justice system
  • The role of trauma in lives of youth in contact with the juvenile justice system
  • Deliberate coordination among youth-serving systems to improve outcomes for youth with behavioral disorders who are involved in the juvenile justice system

This initiative is made possible by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and will be coordinated by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice at Policy Research Associates, Inc. and the Technical Assistance Collaborative, Inc. For more information or an application, please contact Karli Keator at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or click here

OP-ED: UN Calls Out US on Police Violence, Criminalization of Youth of Color

Tawakalitu Amusa Wednesday, 28 January 2015 Posted in 2015, Voices

The death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Mo., has brought national attention to the serious and sometimes deadly interactions that youth of color often have with the police.

However, racial discrimination against youth isn’t limited to encounters with the police. These policing practices often result in youth being funneled into the criminal justice system. In the United States approximately 200,000 youth under 18 are tried as adults each year, and on any given day more than 6,000 youth are detained in adult jails and prisons. Due to the racial disparities at every stage in the process — from decisions about whom to stop through whom to prosecute as adults — the majority of the youth in the adult system are minorities.

These young people spend their formative years in adult jails and prisons that frequently place them at risk for sexual and physical violence. Locking youth away in adult facilities that do not address their developmental needs or capacity for change destroys their future.

A United Nations human rights body recently criticized the U.S. for the severity of police use of force against youth of color and its treatment of youth in the criminal justice system. The U.N. Committee Against Torture expressed concern in “Concluding Observations” over the “conditions of detention for juveniles, including their placement in adult jails and prisons” and recommended that the U.S. “resort more to alternatives to incarceration” for juveniles. The committee also emphasized the need to end practices that are particularly harmful to youth. It stated that the U.S. should abolish solitary confinement for juveniles, “ensure that juvenile detainees and prisoners under 18 are held separately from adults” and prohibit the use of stun guns on children.

The committee also expressed concern about “numerous reports of police brutality and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, in particular against persons belonging to certain racial and ethnic groups.” It articulated “deep concern at the frequent and recurrent police shootings or fatal pursuits of unarmed black individuals.” It noted in particular reports of racial profiling and excessive use of force by the Chicago Police against African-American and Latino young people.

Other U.N. bodies have criticized the U.S. for racial profiling, discrimination in the justice system and laws and policies that allow or require youth under the age of 18 to be treated as adults in the criminal system. In August, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued “Concluding Observations” expressing concern about racial disparities at all levels of the criminal and juvenile justice systems. CERD criticized the “disproportionate rate at which youth from racial and ethnic minorities are ... referred to the criminal justice system, prosecuted as adults, and incarcerated in adult prisons.”

It recommended that the U.S. address the racial disparities and “ensure that juveniles are not transferred to adult courts and are separated from adults during pretrial detention and after sentencing.” CERD also expressed concern about the “practice of profiling racial and ethnic minorities by law enforcement officials.” It emphasized concern over the high levels of brutality and excessive force used by law enforcement officers toward mostly “members of racial and ethnic minorities, including unarmed individuals.”

The Committee Against Torture and CERD criticism of the U.S. reflect important concerns about how racism affects the policing of communities and the treatment of youth of color within the criminal justice system. They also reflect the consensus of the international community that children in conflict with the law have the right to special protection because of their youth and their capacity for change. Subjecting youth to adult criminal punishments rather than providing age-appropriate rehabilitative programs during a crucial time in their development will have a lifelong detrimental impact.

The comments from these two U.N. committees recognize that we must do more to address racial discrimination and to protect youth of color. It is time the U.S. is held accountable for the actions of law enforcement officials and pushed to develop alternatives to the criminalization of youth. Hopefully, the recent international scrutiny can support advocates currently taking to the streets in solidarity to show that the lives and future of minority youth do matter.

Tawakalitu Amusa is a third-year law student in the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic at the City University of New York Law School. IWHR submitted a report to the U.N. Committee Against Torture with the Campaign For Youth Justice and other groups.

New FRONTLINE Digital Exclusive Film, Stickup Kid

Aprill O. Turner Friday, 19 December 2014 Posted in 2014, Across the Country

Stickup Kid, a 30-minute FRONTLINE digital exclusive film, tells the story of Alonza Thomas — who, at age 16, was sent to adult prison after being charged with armed robbery shortly after California enacted a new tough-on-juvenile-crime law.

One of the first minors tried under Prop. 21 in California — and how spending over a decade behind bars in adult prison impacted him. It's a provocative look at a major social issue for which there are no easy answers  — and it gives new insight into the ongoing debate over juvenile sentencing Alonza went on to spend more than a decade behind bars.

The documentary is a provocative look at a major social issue for which there are no easy answers — and it gives new insight into the ongoing debate over prison reform in America.

It was produced in association with the Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

WHERE TO WATCH:

You can watch Stickup Kid, here.

You can also watch on PBS's Youtube channel, here.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter using #StickupKid.

Mental Health Training Initiative for State and Local Juvenile Detention and Correctional Systems

Tuesday, 23 September 2014 Posted in 2014, Take Action Now

A new effort to create sustainable mental health training capacity within state and local juvenile justice systems will offer up to six sites an opportunity to be trained in the Mental Health Training Curriculumfor Juvenile Justice (MHTC-JJ). This project, which is jointly supported by the Office of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (MacArthur Foundation), will be conducted by the Mental Health and Juvenile Justice Collaborative forChange (Collaborative for Change) at the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice (NCMHJJ).

Youth Voices: Why I Joined my SAG

Lashon Amado: The National Council of Young Leaders Wednesday, 17 September 2014 Posted in 2014, Voices

This past Tuesday night, I sat in a conference room at a juvenile detention facility here in Boston. I was scared a little overwhelmed, but not because I was being adjudicated. Instead, I was at a table with city officials and heads of state agencies—people who could casually talk about meetings with the Governor. I was there because I want to be a member of the Massachusetts Juvenile Justice Committee, our State Advisory Group (SAG) that oversees our juvenile justice system. I had contacted several people, sent lots of emails and made phone calls in order to get a seat at this table.

Law Enforcement's Leadership Role in Juvenile Justice Reform: Actionable Recommendations for Practice & Policy

Tuesday, 16 September 2014 Posted in 2014, Research & Policy

New Resource:  Law Enforcement’s Leadership Role in Juvenile Justice Reform: Actionable Recommendations for Practice & Policy
 When a young person gets in trouble with the law, oftentimes arrest, court referral, and detention run counter to public safety by making it more likely that young person will reoffend.  IACP’s National Summit on Law Enforcement Leadership in Juvenile Justice drew attention to the often untapped potential of law enforcement executives to improve their agencies’ response to young people and to serve as credible voices for “smart on crime” juvenile justice reforms in their communities and beyond.

NEW REPORT- State Trends: Updates from the 2013-2014 Legislative Session

Friday, 12 September 2014 Posted in 2014, Research & Policy

CFYJ released a new report today, State Trends: Updates from the 2013-2014 Legislative Session. The report takes a look at states that have, and are taking steps to remove children from the adult criminal justice system.

State Trends documents the continuation of four trends in justice reform efforts across the country to roll back transfer laws in the country, from arrest through sentencing. Building on efforts from the last decade, states continue to amend and eliminate harmful statutes and policies created in the 1990s that placed tens of thousands of youth in the adult criminal justice system. In 2014, advocacy, research, operative Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) regulations, and fiscal analysis assisted in the introduction of bills in nine states to remove youth from the adult criminal justice system and give youth an opportunity at more rehabilitative services.

Baltimore: Youths in adult jail face higher risk, longer wait for trial

Friday, 07 February 2014 Posted in 2014, Across the Country


Recently ABC2 (Baltimore) explored the fine line between rehabilitation and punishment in Maryland:

For thousands of teens accused of crimes, punishment precedes any conviction in court. While awaiting trial and ostensibly presumed innocent, they can be held for months or even years in county jails for -- and sometimes with -- adult suspects.
 
Federal law aims to shield youths from extended detention and from physical or psychological abuse by adult inmates. But the protection does not apply to suspects 17 and younger sent to adult court to be tried for serious offenses such as assault, rape or murder. Youth advocates say this exemption amounts to a major loophole.

 Click here for the full story and video segment.

(ABC2 Baltimore)



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