Blog: Juvenile Justice Reform

NYU's School of Law Dean Randy Hertz joins a growing list of legal scholars and youth advocates calling for an end to the practice of sentencing juveniles to life without the possibility of parole (JLWOP). 
Writing in The Nation, Hertz explains:

In Roper v. Simmons, which ruled out the death penalty for under-age offenders in 2005, the Court reasoned that “juvenile offenders cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders” because they are less mature and their sense of responsibility has not fully developed. They are more vulnerable to negative internal and external influences, including peer pressure. Unlike adults, they can’t control or escape dysfunctional homes and dangerous neighborhoods—two major contributing factors to youth crime. They also have a greater chance for rehabilitation. Thus, as the Court said, “from a moral standpoint it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult.”
In 2010, the Court applied the same guiding logic in its decision in Graham v. Florida, concluding that children convicted of non-homicide crimes cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. As Justice Kennedy wrote for the majority, “Juveniles are more capable of change than are adults, and their actions are less likely to be evidence of ‘irretrievably depraved character’ than are the actions of adults.”
...
The recognition that children are different is supported by recent neuroscience and psychosocial studies that have shown adolescence to be a period of intense change in the brain. We now know that the parts of the brain that drive emotional reactions, impulses and reactivity to peers develop before those that control impulses and imagine consequences, and which enable adults to resist pressures, delay gratification and weigh risk and reward. Scientists who study the teenage brain describe it as akin to a car with a fully functioning gas pedal but no brakes.

Earlier today I created a word cloud to visualize the most common words and themes of this blog. This is what popped up:
 
What do you think? Is that an accurate representation of our discussions on this blog?

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Study shows youth law project “bridges gaps” for children in need
  Fosters
  An evaluation study recently completed by the University of New Hampshire reveals that services provided by the New Hampshire Legal Assistance's Youth Law Project result in an overall reduction of recidivism, a goal the agency strives for through providing support and resources alongside juveniles in the court system.
• Cook County must reform juvenile justice, national agency says
  Chicago Tribune
  Cook County should demolish its long-troubled juvenile temporary detention center and needs to address an array of problematic trends in how it detains youths, such as disproportionately high admission rates for African-Americans, according to a national criminal justice research agency report.
• Louisiana seeing reduced need for some juvenile justice facilities, chief says
  The Town Talk
  The number of referrals to Louisiana juvenile detention facilities is down, as are recidivism and funding, the head of the state Office of Juvenile Justice says, so daytime treatment services under her office can be eliminated.
• Funding cuts to youth centers would give minor offenders nowhere to go
  The Salt Lake Tribune
  Lawmakers in Utah are looking at cutting millions of dollars from Juvenile Justice Services, meaning that several rural youth receiving centers will shutter and others statewide will have limited operating hours.
• Most Texas juvenile prisoners have mental health problems
  CBS
  Some 52 percent of young people in Texas’ six youth prison facilities have moderate or high mental health treatment needs, the head of the state juvenile justice department says.
• Local juvenile drug court program is having a positive impact on Great Falls
  KFBB
  Judge Kenneth Neill was tired of seeing kids making bad decisions, so when the Juvenile Drug Court Program began in Cascade County 6 years ago, he saw it as a fresh start for teens who would otherwise be locked up.
• In Dakota County, jury of teenage peers offers alternative for juvenile offenders
  Pioneer Press
  A youth court in Minnesota is giving teens a second chance after learning from their mistakes.
• South Carolina bill to deny licenses to dropouts advances
  7 On Your Side
  Lawmakers are taking aim at South Carolina’s high dropout rate with a bill that would take driving privileges away from students who stop going to school.
• House passes overhaul of Georgia juvenile justice system with focus on treatment
  The Republic
  Juvenile courts would have to conduct an assessment of children's mental health needs before committing them into state custody as part of an overhaul of the juvenile justice code passed Wednesday by House lawmakers.
• What life is like for a 14-year-old killer tried as an adult in Indiana
  The Indianapolis Star
  Should a 12-year-old be tried as an adult? Paul Henry Gingerich was after he helped kill a man two years ago. He faces 10 more years in prison -- unless an appeal convinces a court he should have been tried as a juvenile.
• Q&A: James Bell on what to do with California’s youth prisons
  KALW
  KALW sat down with James Bell, Founder and Executive Director of the Burns Institute, to discuss disproportionate minority contact and realignment in California.
• Florida district seeks civil citation program for misdemeanors committed at school
  The Ledger
  Polk County School District officials said Tuesday they want to implement a civil citation program for students who commit misdemeanors at schools. The program would allow students of all ages who commit a misdemeanor on campus to receive a citation instead of possibly being arrested, run through the court system and possibly taken to jail.
• Legal loophole makes some Texas juvenile records public
  Houston Chronicle
  Personal information about thousands of Texas juveniles cited for truancy, disorderly conduct and other Class C misdemeanors is widely accessible to the public, despite privacy concerns from advocates and parents.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Thousands of teens pick up smoking each day, new report says
  WBTV
  Every day in the U.S., more than 3,800 people under the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette. More than 1,000 of them become daily smokers. They replace the 1,200 people who die each day in the U.S. from smoking.

In the second part of our chat, Bart Lubow (director, Juvenile Justice Strategy Group, Annie E. Casey Foundation) praised Oregon's Multnomah County for its efforts in diverting kids from juvenile hall. (See the first part of our chat, with Bart explaining the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative and why it improves outcomes and public safety.)
In his own words:

It's interesting to note that these simple innovations are actually keeping communities safer while providing alternatives to juvenile detention.

"How can a judge turn a child into an adult?" That's a question lawyer Bryan Stevenson has spent years asking. Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit group providing legal representation to communities that have been marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment. 
Stevenson was invited to speak at TED2012, an annual conference showcasing big thinkers and doers throughout the world. He spent his 20 minutes discussing the power of identity, the dire need to reduce inequalities (including disproportionate minority contact), the injustice of juvenile life without parole sentences and mass incarceration. In his own words:

Here's an excerpt from the TED Blog:

Texas isn't the only state using animals to rehabilitate its juvenile hall residents. For the past 12 weeks, eight young men from the St. Johns Youth Academy in Florida have spent their Friday mornings caring for and learning about horses.

The program was started by college student Jovie Reeves, who grew up riding horses. Jovie joined employees at Haven Horse Ranch in showing the boys how to care for and ride the horses.

South Carolina is expanding a program that focuses on young offenders—ages 17-25—who are amenable to rehabilitation and may be turned away from a life of crime.
Under South Carolina’s Youthful Offender Act, first-time offenders in that age group receive indeterminate sentences in conjunction with more intensive supervision aimed at reducing recidivism rates. Currently, this subset of offenders re-offends at a rate of 50 percent, considerably higher than the average rate for other adult offenders, which is only 30 percent.
The intensive supervision incorporates skill-building and education that is designed to ensure that the offenders have a trade and can earn a living outside of prison. The intensive supervision is also intended to build a community-based support system to ensure more effective reentry.
 
 

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Georgia bill would make smuggling cell phones, cigarettes into youth detention centers a felony
  JJIE
  Smuggling cellphones or cigarettes into a Georgia youth prison would become a felony under a bill approved without opposition Thursday by the Georgia Senate. Under the bill, which still must pass the House of Representatives, violators could be sentenced to up to four years in prison upon conviction.
• Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice conducts comprehensive needs assessment
  SurfKy News Group
  The Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice recently completed an 18-month study of its training academy, thought to be the country’s first comprehensive job task analysis and needs assessment of a juvenile justice training program.
• Los Angeles City Council unanimously approves changes to daytime curfew law
  KPCC radio
  L.A. City Council unanimously voted this morning in favor of changes to the city's daytime curfew law to improve how the city deals with its truant students.
• Opinion: Make youth justice a safer situation
  Austin Statesman
  Recent Texas Tribune-New York Times revelations of ongoing safety concerns in Texas' juvenile justice system only confirm what the leading national research shows: Secure juvenile facilities are a taxpayer burden, work against rehabilitation and can make youths' problems worse.
• California Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to end juvenile justice division faces fight San Francisco Chronicle:
  A group of criminal justice leaders are preparing to fight a plan by Gov. Jerry Brown to entirely phase out the state's Division of Juvenile Justice over the next three years and return the most violent and troubled youths to county facilities, despite support for the proposal by some experts.
• Recent increases in drug arrests were for possession, not sales
  Jeffrey A. Butts
  Between 1991 and 2006, arrests for drug sales and manufacturing actually dropped 6 percent while arrests for possession climbed 139 percent. The same pattern was observed for arrests involving offenders of different ages, but the growth in drug possession arrests was sharpest among juveniles.

Adolecscent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Teens driving under the influence of marijuana
  Join Together at Drugfree.org
  According to a recent study, nearly one in five (19 percent) of teens say they have gotten behind the wheel after smoking marijuana.

Right on Crime recently highlighted a Kentucky judge’s pilot program to better handle status offenders. Now the legislature, too, is joining the effort.
With a unanimous vote, the House Judiciary Committee in Kentucky recently approved establishing a task force, the “Unified Juvenile Code Task Force” to study the issues plaguing Kentucky’s juvenile justice system.
This comes after heightened public attention to the system following instances of delinquency charges filed against very young children—as young as five—as well as high rates of detention for status offenders.
If approved, the task force would study the system and recommend legislation for consideration in 2013.
Juvenile justice reforms in other states have produced savings of millions of dollars and more effective treatment for juvenile delinquents. Kentucky’s focus on this issue could bring the state’s system in line with those best practices and produce better outcomes for both the Bluegrass State’s taxpayers and juveniles.