When a 14-year-old girl ends up in juvie, people focus on the crime. Drugs, shoplifting, truancy. But what frequently gets swept under the rug is how she got there. Abusive parents. Forced prostitution. Foster care, the bad kind. Girls in custody are four times more likely than incarcerated boys to say they've been sexually abused, and nearly two times more likely to say they've been physically abused. The statistics are horrendous but they're also faceless and easy to ignore.

As a former prosecutor, I know well the strong sense of justice that motivates district attorneys to do their jobs day after day. Confronted as they are with some of the worst actions humans can commit, even murder, they seek to uphold the rights of victims and ensure public safety, both noble goals, by punishing the offenders. The American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Standards for prosecutors remind us, however, that justice, not merely convictions, must be the prosecutor's ultimate goal.

Article from Roll Call

A tense exchange on the Senate floor presaged the blocking of bipartisan legislation to overhaul the juvenile justice system. “I’m trying to get accountability for this program. That’s what’s at stake here,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, said to Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in a private exchange while the chamber was still voting Thursday on a judicial nominee. Grassley had come to the floor with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., to ask for unanimous consent to pass their bill to reauthorize the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. 

The Huffington Post goes deep into the realities of being a minor in police custody with a new investigative feature, "Cruel And All-Too-Usual: A Terrifying Glimpse Into Life In Prison -- As A Kid."

Robert L. Listenbee Jr. views himself as a juvenile justice visionary. Many juvenile justice advocates agree, as Listenbee prepares to enter his third year as administrator of the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Listenbee, the first African-American to head OJJDP, brought to the job nearly three decades of experience as a juvenile defender in Pennsylvania. 

As Congress begins its new session, youth advocates are looking forward to the passage of a bipartisan bill that would strengthen protections for young people involved in the juvenile justice system. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2014, or S. 2999, introduced late last year by senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), aims to reauthorize and update the only federal law that sets national standards for how states administer juvenile justice.

In June of 2012, the New York Times “Room for Debate” feature considered whether or not convicted youth offenders should be treated differently than adult convicts in the penal system. Those in favor of trying some youth offenders in adult courts included a victims’ advocate, and an attorney from the conservative Heritage Foundation; those against included an inmate at California’s San Quentin prison, and a human rights activist. The victims’ advocate and the attorney from the Heritage Foundation talked about extreme cases of violence and the benefits of stern consequences. The inmate and the human rights activist talked about rape.

A West Virginia mother whose 16-year-old son was struggling with ADHD wanted to get him services but wasn’t sure what to do. The assistant principal at her son’s school suggested she file an incorrigibility petition — a status offense — against her son, whom we’ll call John, so he would be eligible for those services.

For a notoriously red state, Nebraska is joining a blue movement to make our justice system less damaging to youths- at least we’re starting. Legislative bill 845, which passed this winter, said that Juvenile facilities have to file reports on their use of solitary confinement so the state can provide an annual report, but we need to do more to protect our children. This bill comes in response to a report done by the American Civil Liberties Union, “Growing Up, Locked Down.”

Article from Reno Gazette Journal

The use of solitary confinement in the U.S. dates back to the early 1820s when prison architects created the “separate system.”

In this system, all cells throughout an institution were designed to hold individual prisoners in solitary confinement. Inmates did not interact with or even see other prisoners. It was thought that inmates would be reformed through forced reflection (with nothing else to occupy them), which in turn would lead to penitence and the desire to be law-abiding.

This approach to achieving public safety and offender reform failed. Offenders suffered serious mental breakdowns and had high rates of recidivism. Criticisms of the inhumanity of the separate system led to its disuse. 

Like many other state legislatures, New Jersey’s is debating a juvenile-justice bill that would raise the age of adult criminal responsibility for some crimes, limit solitary confinement for teenagers, and house more juvenile offenders in facilities focused on rehabilitation, instead of in adult prisons. But unlike legislation in other states, New Jersey’s bill would prevent the cases of teenagers under 15 from being transferred to adult court under any circumstances, even murder. That would make New Jersey unique. According to the National Center for Juvenile Justice, 22 states allow children of any age to be waived into adult court for serious crimes. Of those states with strict limitations on charging kids as adults, none goes as far as the New Jersey bill.

A large majority of Americans say the juvenile justice system must place more emphasis on rehabilitating youthful offenders and focus far less on punishment and prison, according to a survey released today. 

The story of Kalief Browder, the 22-year-old who committed suicide after spending nearly two years in solitary confinement at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail, is a tragic testament to a life snuffed out by a grinding, unflinching U.S. criminal justice system.