Changing a Child’s Future: Jail for Life or Just Long Enough?
Two cases involving juvenile justice made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court last week. Florida has 70% of the juveniles serving life sentences for non- homicidal crimes in the United States and was the origin of BOTH cases.
National Public Radio ran three segments on the issue and newspapers around Florida such as the Miami Herald, Florida Times Union, and the St. Petersburg Times, published articles concerning the propriety of these sentences. While some say the 109 juveniles serving life sentences for non-homicidal crimes are deterrents for other would-be juvenile offenders, children’s advocates around the country argue that this kind of harsh treatment is “cruel and unusual.”
In an op-ed published in the New York Times, Elizabeth Scott, law professor at Columbia, and Laurence Steinburg, psychology professor at Temple, stated, “studies show that the vast majority of juveniles who commit crimes — even very serious crimes — grow up to be law-abiding adults, and that it is impossible to predict which juvenile offenders will become career criminals. Absent an ability to do this, and in light of what science tells us about the capacity for adolescents to change, it makes no sense to lock up any young offender and throw away the key.”
Dwayne Betts, successful poet and author of “A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival and Coming of Age in Prison,” filed an amicus brief in defense of the two men. In an interview with NPR, he describes his perspective. “You have to be a certain age to get a driver’s license,” Betts says. “You have to be a certain age to drink. I mean, everywhere else we recognize that it’s a difference between juveniles and adults.”
The case appears to have left the Supreme Court as divided as the 2005 case involving sentencing juveniles to the death penalty. The defining issue of both cases is at what point, if at all, a juvenile can be rehabilitated. To read more, click here.
Children's Campaign, Inc. knows given the proper attention and counseling, it is possible to make a difference in a young adult’s life. Programs that help troubled children are quickly diminishing in today’s economy, which is a loss not only for the children but the state as a whole.
Stay tuned for updates as the case develops.
Bringing Florida’s At-Risk Youth into the Spotlight
The Florida Juvenile Justice Association began registration for the 2010 Adolescent Conference to bring awareness to the needs of children in the juvenile justice system.
According to the conference registration website, “Recognizing the unique needs of at risk youth and the need to improve the system of care, the 2010 Adolescent Conference has expanded its focus to encompass prevention, intervention and treatment plenary sessions and workshops, including a series of post-conference workshops focusing on services to female youth.”
According to an Annie E. Casey Foundation report, “the juvenile justice system has suffered the most glaring gaps between best practice and common practice, between what we know and what we most often do.... juvenile justice policy has been too long shaped by misinformation, hyperbole, and political prejudices.”
It’s time Florida stepped up for its children. We can change how we treat our at-risk youth so that we are offering them a second chance at a better life.
Please visit the FJJA website for more information.
Children Need More than “Zero Tolerance”
The Zero-Tolerance policies enacted by Congress in 1994 require federally- funded schools to expel students who bring firearms to school. School administrators are taking this one step further now by expelling children for more trivial offenses, essentially criminalizing normal adolescent behaviors such as profanity or disrespecting a teacher. These are issues that have been dealt with in the past simply by assigning detention or a parent meeting. As a result, juvenile courts around the nation are being flooded with students.
Florida legislators with help from Florida State Conference - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, many members of the Juvenile Justice Blueprint Commission, and Children’s Campaign, Inc. recognized these issues last Session and passed SB 1540 which clarified the original intent of zero tolerance policies. The law keeps petty acts of misconduct and misdemeanors out of the hands of school resource officers and law enforcement while directing schools to create alternatives to expulsion or referral to the juvenile justice system.
Florida is not the only state attempting to refocus zero tolerance. School officials in Clayton County, Ga. are re-training school counselors and implementing a three-strike system. With fewer low-risk students being referred to courts, probation officers are able to focus more closely on high-risk young people, driving down felony numbers as well. Graduation rates have risen steadily since the new protocol was introduced in 2004. Read more about the trouble with the Zero Tolerance policy.
Program Keeps Troubled Youths out of Juvenile Detention
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency has named the Children and Families in Need of Services (CINS/FINS) program established and administered by the Florida Network of Youth & Family Services as a best practice for helping children in the juvenile justice system. This program aims to stabilize families with voluntary around-the-clock services such as intensive crisis counseling and parent training.
This program has been on the cutting block several years running and been saved by advocates and insightful policy-makers in the Legislature. The national recognition validates all the work Florida’s advocates have done to keep the program running.
Learn more about CINS/FINS, click here.
This Juvenile Justice Front Burner is brought to you by:
Roy Miller, President
Aprille Case, Messaging Administrator
Amanda Ostrander, Website/Communications Coordinator