Alternatives to Incarceration
From the abstract: “Hundreds of thousands of children are brought under the jurisdiction of delinquency courts every year in the United States. Despite the reality that most children engage in delinquent behavior during their adolescence, poor children, children of color, children with disabilities, and children who identify as LGBTQIA+ comprise a disproportionate number of those who become delinquency system-involved. These disparities exist…
Georgetown University Law Center Associate Professor Eduardo Ferrer penned this op-Ed on regarding the narrative that there is a “rise” in violent crime in D.C. This narrative is being used to justify regressive tough-on-crime policies that do not improve public safety. Professor Ferrer discusses the perception versus the reality of crime statistics and data, including…
“This paper describes a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to evaluation used by an academic-practitioner partnership to refine the logic model for a violent crime reduction program and develop associated performance measures. Through qualitative and quantitative data collection, including semi-structured interviews, engagement with program stakeholders (e.g., program leaders and staff, peer researchers, community residents), community…
This 2024 Impact report from Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) focuses on the organization’s accomplishments, including the opening of CURYJ’s Youth Power Zone, a physical space that provides community-led, community-owned direct-service programming, advocacy and culturally-rooted healing. CURYJ also highlights the acquisition of a second physical space for community peace, healing, and resilience. Further,…
This report is the latest in a series of Juvenile Justice Initiative (JJI) reports on juvenile detention, building on prior research in concluding the time is ripe for a complete overhaul of the juvenile detention system in Illinois.
This report challenges the notion that Georgia’s youth legal system is built to rehabilitate and suggests measures that protect the health and humanity of all the state’s children. First, this report will explore the myth of the “superpredator” and its impact on perceived Black youth criminality. Second, it will detail the state’s school-to-prison pipeline and…
This report from National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform offers six principles of a positive youth justice system (‘PYJS’) including: 1) Minimize contact with the juvenile justice system, 2) partner with youth and families to develop and share ownership of case plans, 3) community-based organizations should take the lead, 4) build on youth assets and…
A sample memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Hamilton County Juvenile Court detention center and a community mental health service provider.
A sample disposition and mitigation memorandum filed in a juvenile court in Ohio.
Florida routinely pushes Black children out of schools and into a legal system with well-documented harms. In recent years, the state has made significant investments in school law enforcement and self-proclaimed “tough love” youth legal system policies, purportedly in the name of public safety. However, these investments have yielded a system that disparately disciplines, arrests,…
By understanding the conditions facing incarcerated youth, the responsibility of the justice system, and strategies designed to improve outcomes, stakeholders can make informed decisions. After arming readers with the historical timeline necessary to understand Texas’ complicated history with its juvenile justice system, LSJA’s Reimagining Reform report issues a challenge to stakeholders during a crucial time…
A decade after national protests catapulted the Black Lives Matter movement following the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and four years after a national racial reckoning triggered by Minneapolis police officers killing George Floyd, lawmakers are wavering on their commitment to making the criminal legal system more just and effective. Many are…
The National Youth Justice Network released a report detailing legislative trends on youth rights from 2023. This report highlights key gains made by several states around juvenile court fines and fees, expungement, transfer, and youth interrogation among other issues, and flags several regressive legislative trends rooted in harmful narratives about young people. This overview of…
From the executive summary: “YEAH (Youth Empowerment for Advancement Hangout) is a community-based organization working to empower, advocate for, and meet the needs of young people ages 15 to 24 based in West and Southwest Philadelphia. Kendra Van de Water and James Aye co-founded YEAH in 2018 to address the stark lack of safe, culturally…
