Harms of Incarceration
This complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado challenges Colorado’s practice of keeping dually involved youth detained on a delinquency case due to a lack of placement options in the state’s foster care system. The complaint raises substantive and procedural due process violations and seeks declaratory and injunctive relief. “The…
This proposed draft of a legislative “findings and declarations” document for a youth detention and disposition reform bill in California affirms the legislature’s commitment to make placement in juvenile detention “the exception, not the rule.” The draft findings rely on research regarding the impact of detention on young people, racial justice, developmental science, and California…
This memorandum proposes language for a detention and disposition reform bill in California. The memorandum proposes four areas the detention reform bill aims to change including: 1) clarifying the legal standard for pre-adjudication detention of youth, 2) clarifying the juvenile court’s authority to determine whether pre-adjudication detention is still necessary, 3) clarifying the standard at…
CfJJ delivered written testimony to the Massachusetts’ Joint Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights and Inclusion on information-sharing practices between the juvenile and criminal legal systems and federal immigration authorities. Following a review of public records requests around these practices, CfJJ found a pattern of collaboration between police, prosecutors, probation officers, and Immigration and Customs…
The Sentencing Project released an updated snapshot of the numbers of youth in the juvenile legal system from 2000 to 2023, finding significant declines in youth arrests and incarceration, though racial and ethnic disparities persist. The report calls for the need to continued shrinking the juvenile legal system by increasing informal or diversionary responses to youth arrests. Introduction: “Youth arrests and incarceration increased dramatically in the closing…
From the R Street Institute: “Juvenile crime has captured headlines and consumed policymaking conversations in recent months. In fact, say six out of 10 major city mayors say juvenile crime is a problem in their city. But despite the temptation to “get tough” on all children who run afoul of the law, the research is clear: Harsher punishments, trying youth…
“For decades, in the summertime, America has confined certain of its youth in what are essentially open-air heat camps. In city after city, camp-form is established through the enactment of warm-weather juvenile curfews which keep the youth at home or in state-sponsored centers during summer nights and, increasingly, during days as well. Local governments justify…
Former Secretary of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, Vinny Schiraldi, wrote this op-ed, discussing President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Washington D.C. and the District’s intentions to repeal lower the age for trying children as adults to 12 in the Youth Rehabilitation Act. The op-ed details Vinny’s reflections and observations during his…
This resource offers a brief overview of how children are transferred or bound over to adult court in Ohio and discusses what is at stake in the case of State v. D.T., 2024-Ohio-4482 (Ohio Ct. App. 2024) pending before the Ohio Supreme Court. The Gault Center filed an amicus in this case here. Oral arguments were…
This issue brief by the Juvenile Justice Initiative provides an overview of transfer laws in Illinois. Additionally, the brief reviews demographic data on young people who are being tried as adults and identifies the ways that transfer fails children and public safety in the state of Illinois. The brief ends by calling for a return…
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals found that a liberty interest may exist for short periods of solitary confinement in deplorable conditions and offered the following language in support. “Jackson presented evidence showing that he was subjected to three months in appalling conditions of solitary confinement at Pontiac. Taking that evidence as true, Jackson had…
“Today, America faces a health paradox: the nation’s largest jails are the nation’s largest psychiatric institutions. In a criminal justice system designed for punishment, solutions like mental health units or mental health courts try to address this contradiction. Yet, if mental illness is a health issue, and not a criminal issue, then increased investments in…
This report from the National Center for Youth Law examines the emerging policies across the United States that are likely to reverse the downward trend of youth incarceration rates.
From the abstract: “The discipline of public health has begun to recognize the structural inequities of the carceral system as drivers of poor individual and population health. Thenumberofpeopleincarceratedandthelengthoftheirincarcerationdeterminethescopeandgravityoftheirexposureto these individual and public health effects. Plea bargains all but guarantee a period of incarceration, often for many years, because prosecutors have significant bargaining power against defendants…
From the conclusion” “Conclusion There is no question that the statistical picture of special education is bleak. But after its meeting of stakeholders, interviews with experts, and review of the research, NCD believes that IDEA and other related disability laws, with improved enforcement, can and should benefit at-risk students who are properly referred and served.…
From the introduction: “Youth justice advocates, including lawyers, organizers, and other youth and adult movement builders, want to replace the current damaging, discriminatory, and ineffective juvenile and criminal legal systems1 with better approaches. We envision approaches that support children, help them f lourish, and contribute to a safe, equitable, and healthy community. How do we…
From the introduction: “This Article proffers human dignity as a novel conceptual vehicle for capturing and articulating solitary confinement’s harm to personhood. Starting from the Supreme Court’s edict that “the basic concept underlying the Eighth Amendment is nothing less than the dignity of man,” this Article employs a construct of dignity-as-integrity—or wholeness—of personhood. Using dignity-as-integrity…
