- 18. November 2008: Moving Forward to a New Day
- 17. November 2008: The Profit in Locking Up Our Kids (Multi Billion Dollar Industry)
- 3. November 2008: Who Are We?!?!?
- 19. October 2008: From Junior High to Life In Prison-Cruel and Unusual Punishment
- 15. October 2008: Safer Community or Prison Expansion Program? The rest of the story.
- 15. October 2008: Safer Community or Prison Expansion Program?
- 24. September 2008: The Profit in Locking Up Our Kids (Final on Media)
- 10. September 2008: The Profit in Locking Up Our Kids II (Media) Cont.
- 9. September 2008: The Profit in Locking Up Our Kids II
- 5. September 2008: The Profit in Locking Up Our Kids
Blogroll
- Blog Directory
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- Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants
- Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition
- Compassion in Juvenile Sentencing
- Drew
- Free Jonny
- HR 4300
- Julie
- Justice For Juveniles
- Peter
- Real Justice
- Stumble Upon
- The Pendulum Foundation
- The Prison Commission
- The Vera Institute of Justice
- Travis
Recent Articles on Juvenile Justice
I have chosen to post two recent articles that were published by two respected newspapers. These two articles give hope to the cause of Juvenile Justice and Juvenile Prison Reform issues. However, I believe as the authors do, that we will have to see how it really works. Will it be enough? The pieces of national legislation, Juvenile Justice Deliquency Prevention Act and HR 4300 are strong hopes but the internation legislation by the UN council The Rights of a Child would show that we are clearly ready to change the way we deal with Juveniles. Read on…..
Juvenile Clemency Board
Panel makes inroads
With a system to review offenders finally in place, the first-of-its-kind board has started assessing cases.
By Kevin Simpson
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 07/06/2008 11:39:22 PM MDT
Nearly a year after Gov. Bill Ritter established the nation’s first juvenile-clemency board, the panel has delved into individual cases — and could soon make its first recommendations on whether to offer some young offenders a second chance.
After establishing eligibility criteria and crafting an application process, the board reviewed two cases at its June 20 meeting, has given four others serious consideration and expects several more to be in the pipeline soon.
Some final clemency decisions likely will come before the end of the year, said Mark Noel, the state director for extradition and clemency. Adult clemency traditionally has been announced around Christmastime.
“This is all new ground,” Noel said. “We’ve had inquiries from all over the world about this board. It’s a very careful, serious, deliberate process. These are murder cases. You don’t want to rush something like this.”
The panel spent months devising a process for juveniles to apply for clemency and working with the Department of Corrections to get the system up and running. Ritter introduced the board as a political compromise to address some cases among at least 45 offenders already sentenced as juveniles to life without parole.
Juvenile-justice advocates, while frustrated by the slow pace so far, still hope the clemency board will turn out to be more than just political window dressing.
“We’re not asking that they all come out,” said Mary Ellen Johnson, executive director of the Denver-based Pendulum Foundation, a juvenile-justice advocacy group. “We’re asking for a realistic chance. One out of 100 is not realistic. I’d like to see 15 of the 45 (serving life without parole) have a realistic chance.”
Johnson said her organization also would like to work with the Department of Corrections to implement programs designed to prepare young offenders for life outside of prison walls.
“We don’t think, like some (offenders’) family members, that you just wave a magic wand and they come out,” she said. “It’s not going to happen.”
Mindful that clemency always carries political risks, she proposes a conditional commutation, in which a juvenile who successfully completes a cognitive-behavior program would go into a halfway house and then gradually acclimate to society.
“We want to work with the board to make this a real partnership,” she said, “to heal those young men but also to have public safety be paramount, so it’s a win-win for everybody.”
One glitch that surfaced as the board got underway involved use of an offender’s age at sentencing to determine eligibility for juvenile clemency, rather than age at the time of the crime.
Particularly in murder cases, months or even years can pass before a case goes to trial and sentencing. The unintended result of the board’s rule was that many juveniles serving life without parole wouldn’t have been eligible to apply.
The board granted waivers while it officially changed the rule to reflect eligibility by an offender’s age at the time of the crime, which was Ritter’s intent, Noel said.
The board makes nonbinding recommendations to the governor, who can reduce a sentence or deny clemency. Offenders who are denied must wait three years to reapply.
The seven-member board also will see its first turnover, as one member leaves for health reasons. Currently, the board has no African-American representation — a situation juvenile advocates would like to see change.
Kevin Simpson: 303-954-1739 or ksimpson@denverpost.com
45 Colorado offenders sentenced as juveniles, serving life without parole, who would be eligible for clemency under the current system
July 3, 2008
NY Times Editorial
Don’t Teach Our Children Crime
Under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, the states agreed to humanize their often Dickensian juvenile justice systems in exchange for increased federal aid. This promising arrangement collapsed in the 1990s during hysteria about an adolescent crime wave that never materialized. The states intensified all kinds of punishments for children and sent large numbers to adult jails where, research has shown, they are more likely to be battered, traumatized and transformed into hard-core, recidivist criminals.
Congress is in the process of reauthorizing the law, and it ought to bar the states from housing children in adult jails, except for the most heinous crimes. Sadly, the updated version of the law, recently introduced in the Senate, falls short of that goal. But it does include a number of farsighted measures that discourage the placement of children in adult jails during the pretrial period and expands protections for children charged as adults.
The need for these measures is alarmingly evident in a report issued last year by the Campaign for Youth Justice, an advocacy group. The report found that as many as 150,000 people under the age of 18 are held in adult jails in any given year. More than half of young people who are transferred into the adult system are never convicted as adults — and many are never convicted at all.
The Senate bill takes a comprehensive approach to these issues. It would considerably tighten rules aimed at keeping children out of adult jails during pretrial periods. Children arrested for truancy, running away or other offenses that would not be criminal if committed by an adult would not be placed in juvenile jail unless absolutely necessary.
It also would require the states to work toward reducing racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. It increases federal funding for technical assistance and for drug treatment, mental health care, mentoring and after-care programs that keep children out of the juvenile system in the first place. The bill advocates an evidence-based approach to hand out the money.
Jailing and criminalizing young Americans causes a lot more crime than it punishes or prevents. This bill represents an important step toward rational and compassionate justice for troubled children.
What do you think?