
Prevention and Rehabilitation in the Spotlight
With growing awareness that incarcerating young people marks their lives indelibly, more states focused in 2018 on when children and young adults should fall under the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system or adult criminal courts.
Several states enacted measures that alter when young people are subject to prosecution by the adult criminal justice system; others altered how long they can be subject to the juvenile justice system.[]John Kelly, “In Another Big Year for ‘Raise the Age’ Laws, One State Now Considers All Teens as Juveniles,” Chronicle of Social Change, June 25, 2018.
Some states sought effective ways to prevent kids from coming into contact with the justice system at all: California, both on the local and state level, implemented new laws and programs to reduce the number of youth arrests, particularly among young people of color.[]California AB 1584 (2018).
And Congress reauthorized the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act for the first time in more than a decade, renewing core protections for youth.[]Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, H.R. 6964, 115th Congress (2018).
But the U.S. Supreme Court, despite its own 2010 ruling barring life sentences without parole for people under 18, refused to hear the appeal of a 16-year-old sentenced to 241 years in prison.[]“Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of St. Louis Man with 241-Year Prison Term,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 24, 2018.
States also focused on living conditions for young people in adult criminal justice systems. Connecticut, building on its work with young men, launched a new initiative to transform prison conditions for young women, while the state of South Carolina signed on to do the same for young men in its correctional system, and one Massachusetts county began a similar jail-based program.[]Clarice Silber, “New Prison Unit Opens to Help Young Female Inmates,” Connecticut Mirror, July 9, 2018; Brittney McNamara, “South Carolina Adopts Vera Institute of Justice’s Restoring Promise Initiative,” Teen Vogue, January 30, 2018; and Robert Hayes, “Young Offender Unit Opens at Middlesex Jail & House of Correction,” Wilmington Apple, February 16, 2018.
Advocates targeted communities like incarcerated girls and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming youth. The forces that drive these groups into the crosshairs of the juvenile and criminal justice systems don’t necessarily match the traditional narratives of incarceration.[]Angela Irvine and Aisha Canfield, “Reflections on New National Data on LGBQ/GNCT Youth in the Justice System,” LGBTQ Policy Journal at the Harvard Kennedy School 7, no. 1 (2016-17), 27-36. Also see Lindsay Rosenthal, Girls Matter: Centering Gender in Status Offense Reform Efforts (New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2018), no. 3. Finding out why they are disproportionately ending up in the system may be the key to getting them out of it.
Top Things to Know
Facts and Figures
On Our Radar
Discussion
Best of 2018
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Separated: Children at the BorderBy PBS Frontline, this episode presents the “inside story of what happened to immigrant children separated from their parents at the border. The film explores the impact of the Trump administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy, and how both Trump and Obama dealt with minors at the border.”
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Recovery Boys“Recovery Boys . . . is an intimate look at the strength, brotherhood, and courage that it takes to overcome addiction and lays bare the internal conflict of recovery and the external hurdles of an unforgiving society.”
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Raised in the System“In ‘Raised in the System,’ Emmy-nominated actor Michael Kenneth Williams embarks on a personal journey to expose the root of the American mass incarceration crisis: the juvenile justice system.”
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Girls Incarcerated“Being locked up can be hard on anyone, but it can be especially taxing for young people, who miss out on some milestones that teens should be able to enjoy with their friends and family. This series follows teenage girls who are incarcerated at a juvenile correctional facility in Madison, Ind., documenting what their lives are like behind bars.”
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Tre Maison Dasan“Tre Maison Dasan is an intimate portrait of three boys growing up, each with a parent in prison. Directly told through the child’s perspective, the film is an exploration of relationships and separation, masculinity, and coming of age in America when a parent is behind bars.”
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The New York Times, The Daily, “How Separating Families Became US Policy”Host: Michael Barbaro
“On June 7, [The Daily] interviewed Stephen Miller, President Trump’s senior policy adviser, in his West Wing office about the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy at the border, which has led to heartbreaking images of children being forcibly separated from their families.” -
Crooked, Pod Save The People, “Get Creative”Hosts: DeRay Mckesson, Clint Smith III, Samuel Sinyangwe, and Brittany Packnett
The hosts “talk about using creativity to combat white supremacy, confronting housing segregation, Cyntoia Brown’s prison sentence, and the rise of dollar stores. Nicholas Turner of the Vera Institute of Justice joins DeRay to discuss prison systems globally.” -
WNYC Studios, Caught, “Episode 9: 'You Just Sit There and Wait for the Next Day to Come”Host: Kai Wright
“Rikers Island has ended the traditional use of solitary confinement for juveniles. New York State banned it more broadly, but only for juveniles that have already been sentenced. In many counties, pre-trial juvenile offenders are still put in solitary. In this episode, WNYC teams up with The Marshall Project to investigate how widespread the practice remains.” -
Sirius XM, The Topeka K. Sam Show, “Schools NOT Prisons”“Formerly-incarcerated activist and founder of The Ladies of Hope Ministries Topeka Sam interviews Dr. Baz Dreisinger to discuss the root of the school-to-prison pipeline and how reformers are working from within to alter sentencing trends and decriminalize education for students of color.”
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Center for Court Innovation, New Thinking, “Violence, Trauma, and Healing in Crown Heights, Brooklyn”Host: Matthew Watkins
“Our New Thinking podcast visited the Make It Happen program in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to profile its innovative approach to working with young men of color affected by violence. Through interviews with participants and practitioners, the episode addresses the intersections of trauma, involvement with the justice system, and the lived experience of race.”
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Contributors
External Reviewers
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Nate Balis
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Angela Irvine
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Marcy Mistrett