A Return to Justice: Rethinking our Approach to Juveniles in the System

by Ashley Nellis

Juveniles who commit crimes often find themselves in court systems that do not account for their young age, but it wasn t always this way. The original aim of a separate juvenile justice system was to treat young offenders as the children they were, considering their unique child status and amenability for reform. Now, after years punishing young offenders as if they were adults, slowly the justice system is making changes that would allow the original vision for juvenile justice to finally materialize. In its original design, the founders focused on treating youth offenders separately from adults and with a different approach. The hallmarks of this approach appreciated the fact that youth cannot fully understand the consequences of their actions and are therefore worthy of reduced culpability. The original design for youth justice prioritized brief and confidential contact with the juvenile justice system, so as to avoid the stigma that would otherwise mar a youth s chances for success upon release. Rehabilitation was seen as the priority, and efforts to redirect wayward youth were to be implemented when possible and appropriate. The original tenets of the juvenile justice system were slowly dismantled and replaced with a system more like the adult criminal justice system, one which takes no account of age. In recent years, the tide has turned again. The number of incarcerated youth has declined by nearly a third nationally. In addition, juvenile justice practices are increasingly guided by scholarship in adolescent development that confirms important differences between youth and adults. And, states and localities are chooising to invest in evidence based approaches to juvenile crime prevention and intervention rather than in facilities to lock up errant youth. t. This book assesses the strategies and policies that have produced these important shifts in direction. Important contributing factorsinclude the declining incidence of youth-committed crime, advances in adolescent brain science, nationwide budgetary concerns, focused advocacy with policymakers and practitioners, and successful public education campaigns that address extreme sanctions for youth such as solitary confinement and life sentences without the possibility of parole. Yet more needs to be done. The U.S. Supreme Court has recently voiced its unfaltering conclusion that children are different from adults in a series of landmark cases. The question now is how to take advantage of the opportunity for juvenile justice reform of the kind that would reorient the juvenile justice system to its original intent both in policy and practice, and would return to a system that treats children as children. Using case examples throughout, Nellis offers a compelling history and shows how we might continue on the road to reform."

Genres: Nonfiction

195 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 16, 2015

Reviews

[Erikka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I work in juvenile justice reform, and we read this book as a staff, discussing each chapter during our staff meeting for eight weeks. It was very enlightening in that it indicated problems that we need to start serving, gave us statistical ammunition for the problems we are currently working on, and let us know that we are on the right track with several of the things we’ve already accomplished. I am very proud of the work I do with the Juvenile Justice Coalition, and I hope that people will be inclined to read this book, knowing how clearly and concisely it lays out the work that is so dear to my heart. We do not do justice for our young people. We need more community-based restorative practices, more in-depth and system-wide consideration for youth development, and far fewer punitive measures both inside schools and within our carceral system. We have too long looked at children as capable of adult reasoning and behavior, and not as the underdeveloped and immature people they are. This is especially true in terms of Black and brown children, a fact that no one will doubt, but yet goes consistently ignored, esp in policy circles. Black children are incarcerated at extremely disproportionate rates, are subject to much stricter policing and school discipline, are seen as objectively more of a threat than white children, and are seen more as adults than white children (a Black young man vs a white boy of the same age). We are to blame for that, not the kids. Yet they are the ones who suffer.

Some quick stats for ya:

35,000 plus youths are currently committed to secure placement. 62% of those? Nonviolent offenses.

Black kids are 14% of Ohio’s youth population but 70% of its incarcerated youth. They also make up, nationally, 60% of the youth transferred to adult court and are 9 times more likely to receive an adult sentence than white kids. And Black and brown kids are 70% of students involved in school-based law enforcement referrals in the US.

Superpredators never existed. No seriously. Crime was actually already plummeting by the time that rhetoric came about in the 90s.

Children as young as 14 can be transferred to adult court. They cannot actually be incarcerated with adults though, so are typically kept in solitary. We don’t know how many kids are in solitary bc there isn’t readily available data (an issue!!), but for one example, in 2012 in just Texas, juveniles were isolated 36,000 times. Which is 36,000 times too much. And that’s just one state, one year. We are actively working to end this process in Ohio bc we are one of only 12 states to still have it.

I’ll stop there bc my heart hurts.

If you can read this book and not be filled with rage, righteous indignation, and a desire to do more, then you are clearly dead inside. Seriously, read this. Then hit me up—we would love to have you on board to end this broken and vile system for good.