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Juvenile Justice Reform in New York
Juvenile Justice Reform in New York
Foreword: The Past, Present, and Future of Juvenile Justice Reform in New York State by Stephan A. Newman.
The juvenile justice system in New York State is in crisis. The system deals with youth between ages seven and fifteen who commit crimes. Teenagers age sixteen and over are treated as adults, as are some thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds accused of certain felonies. Read More…
Juevenile Justice Reform: Now Is the Moment by Judith S. Kaye.
As Daniel Webster observed, justice is “the greatest interest of man upon earth.” That perception is proved beyond doubt today—you are all here at the crack of dawn on a beautiful summer Friday to chew on the subject of justice for breakfast. Amazing! Read More…
Reflections on Juvenile Justice Reform in New York by Jeremy Travis.
These remarks address what I consider to be the state of the juvenile justice reform movement in New York, as I look at it from an outsider’s perspective, comment on how we can place ourselves in the national context, and then step aside from that topic to suggest some overarching issues that should be of concern to anyone who pursues the goal of “youth justice,” whatever that means. Read More…
Growing Up Policed in the Age of Aggressive Policing Policies by Brett G. Stoudt, Michelle Fine and Madeline Fox.
Spray-painted atop an old tenement building in the East Village of Manhattan is a large fossilized graffiti image of a tyrannosaurus rex that reads: “NYC EATS ITS YOUNG.” With its ribs exposed and mouth open, this image represents symbolically what many young people in the neighborhood already know intimately and have experienced: New York City (NYC) is not an easy place to grow up. Read More…
Criminalizing the Classroom: The Rise of Aggressive Policing and Zero Tolerance Discipline in New York City Public Schools by Udi Ofer.
On Febr ua r y 1, 2010 school safety officers arrested twelve-year-old Alexa Gonzalez in front of her classmates and teachers. What did she do wrong? While waiting for her Junior High School Spanish teacher to distribute homework assignments, Alexa doodled on her desk with an erasable marker, “I love my friends Abby and Faith. Lex was here. 2/1/10.” She finished the doodle with a smiley face. In response, school safety officers from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) pulled Alexa out of school in handcuffs. Read More…
Judging Children as Children: Reclaiming New York’s Progressive Tradition by Michael A. Corriero.
On a small island in New York Harbor, only a few miles from where I am writing, stands the Statue of Liber t y. It is no accident that this symbol of freedom and opportunity stands at what was the nineteenth century gateway to America. New York has long been a place where strangers were welcomed, a place for the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable. Read More…
When the Cure Makes You Ill: Seven Core Principles to Change the Course of Youth Justice by Gabrielle Prisco.
Our nation’s current youth justice1 system is iatrogenic,2 a term that refers to a cure that worsens the very thing it is trying to fix.3 The system’s operation often results in increased violence and recidivism, the very same outcomes it allegedly intends to remedy. Many Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, would agree that children who commit harmful acts should be… Read More...
Reducing Juvenile Detention: Notes from an Experiment on Staten Island by Nancy L. Fishman.
A young woman, Anna, fifteen years old, stands in the courtroom in front of a New York City Family Court judge.1 She had been arrested two months earlier for resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration because she had run from truancy officers who stopped her on the street during school hours.2 Although this arrest was part of a recent pattern of poor school attendance, declining grades, and increasingly… Read More…
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