By The Imprint Staff Reports, The Imprint, October 1, 2021 The nine years years that Reginald Dwayne Betts spent in prison didn’t stop him from being one of this year’s recipients of the prestigious “genius” grant through the MacArthur Fellowship. It’s not the remarkable accomplishments Betts achieved since his prison stretch — including earning a law degree from Yale University — that brought him a MacArthur Fellowship , but the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s faith that he...

By Susan Gregg, University of Washington Medicine, September 30, 2021 A program to tackle youth incarceration by promoting paths to opportunity for young people, especially among youth of color, is being formed by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The program, Allies in Healthier Systems for Health & Abundance in Youth (AHSHAY), will be directed by Dr. Benjamin Danielson, a clinical professor of pediatrics at UW...

By Ben Schachtman, WHQR, September 24, 2021 On the latest edition of The Newsroom, an in-depth conversation with District Attorney Ben David and Chief District Court Judge Jay Corpening. We discuss changing philosophical approaches to juvenile justice and changes to North Carolina's laws — plus, what could be in store now that New Hanover County has agreed to tap $350 million in hospital sale funds. On Monday, August 30, gunshots rang out in a crowded hallway at New Hanover High School. One...

By Jeremy Loudenbeck, The Imprint, September 15, 2021 Citing the need for “repair and healing,” members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to expand therapeutic approaches to juvenile detention Wednesday, calling on department officials to create plans for mentorships with formerly incarcerated adults, restorative justice programs and more time outdoors. The unanimously approved plan presented by Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Sheila Kuehl also directs county officials to...

By Kirstie Brewer, British Broadcasting Corporation, September 5, 2021 LaTonya woke up in the night to the sound of thuds and yells. Her mother's boyfriend had been growing increasingly abusive and unstable, and now he was dragging their bed out of the apartment and into the passageway outside. LaTonya crept out of bed and saw the boyfriend shouting and jabbing his finger at her mother's temple. "I thought I could protect my mom," she says. She picked up an aerosol can and hit him with it.

By Elizabeth Amon, The Imprint, August 9, 2021 What unites the group of imprisoned men seeking change isn’t addiction recovery, making amends or anger management. Instead, it’s a shared childhood experience: foster care. “State-Raised” is the name of the group they’ve formed with the goal of disrupting the foster care-to-prison pipeline. Washington legislation passed this spring is designed to help that mission, the group’s founder Arthur Longworth said on a recent call from the Monroe...

By JJIE Staff, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, August 18, 2021 Following its July 2017 resolution urging a shift in how juvenile probationers are supervised, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges recently issued its blueprint for how judges and probation officers help make that happen. Based, in part, on results of that organization’s 2020 survey of family court judges across the country, “The Role of the Judge in Transforming Juvenile Probation: A Toolkit for...

By The Annie E. Casey Foundation, July 26, 2021 A short video produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation identifies eight principles that every juvenile justice system should embrace right now to transform care for youth in custody. These principles are designed to help all young people realize their potential — regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, neighborhood or personal history. The video introduces ways that jurisdictions can immediately and meaningfully elevate the standard of...

By Jeremy Loudenback, The Imprint, July 22, 2021 Once the nation’s most vast youth prison system, California’s Division of Juvenile Justice stopped admissions this month — with the state’s highest level offenders headed for starkly different settings. Instead of a cell block monitored by guards, Los Angeles County young people will soon be moved to detention camps, where formerly incarcerated men will mentor them alongside local probation officers. El Dorado, Fresno and Sonoma counties are...

By Anna Deen, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, July 16, 2021 Since being released from New York City’s Rikers Island jail — where he’d been sentenced to four months for not being where his parole officer expected him to be on a certain day and time — Dakem Roberts has been living in a Brooklyn homeless shelter. It was his latest incarceration since, in the late 1970s, when he was 16, he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. He’d been arrested for his involvement in a robbery...

By Malik Pickett, Pennsylvania Capital-Star, June 27, 2021 Glen Mills, Wordsworth, Devereaux, and most recently the Delaware County Juvenile Justice Center are all highly publicized scandals involving the abuse of children inside Pennsylvania juvenile facilities. Abuses such as these precipitated Gov. Tom Wolf’s creation of the Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice Task Force which studied the Commonwealth’s juvenile justice system for 16 months to create recommendations for reform. Last week, the...

By Emma Knight | June 1, 2021, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, Supporters of the juvenile justice status quo wrongly claim that community-based organizations are not yet strong enough to serve all youth who may otherwise cycle through juvenile courts, detention centers and on and off parole rosters. Ideally, opponents to reform say, youth would be served by nonprofits close to home, but that cannot happen until enough suitable nonprofits are available. This line of thinking ignores...