CJJ Today

07
May
0

Family Voice in Juvenile Justice

By Lisa Lambert & Meri Viano Family involvement is a key component to keeping youth in the community and doing better overall. In Massachusetts, the DYS Family Voice project supports, trains and engages parents whose children are involved in the juvenile justice system. Created through a partnership between a family-run organization and the Department of Youth Services, the Family Voice project is shifting the culture, often one person at a time, to seeing families in a strengths-based way as well as providing family voice from the ground up to strategy meetings.
Facebook Twitter More...
Read more →
01
May
0

New Bill Introduced to Improve Protections for Youth

We applaud Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) for their continued bipartisan leadership on juvenile justice. On April 30, 2015, the two Senators introduced legislation to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), our nation’s seminal federal legislation on juvenile justice. The JJDPA, which was first enacted in 1974, has played an important role in reforming and improving juvenile justice across the country. As Mark Soler, Director of the Center for Children’s Law and Policy stated during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week on related grant programs, “this statute saves children’s lives.”
Facebook Twitter More...
Read more →
16
Apr
0

Getting Diverse Groups Talking about Race, Ethnicity and Justice

By Lara Herscovitch and Mallory LaPierre A critical first step to addressing disproportionate minority contact is getting people to face up to the fact that race and ethnicity may influence their own decision-making. The Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance facilitated a series of forums that incorporated: a public television documentary about DMC in the state’s juvenile justice system, presentation by leaders on the idea of implicit bias, and an open discussion by attendees. These “Color of Justice” forums have led to changes in the way some juvenile justice actors do their jobs, and to advocacy by individuals and communities.
Facebook Twitter More...
Read more →
03
Mar
0

The Time is Now to Protect our Youth

By David Schmidt, Executive Board Member, Coalition for Juvenile Justice There is a growing effort to protect our most vulnerable youth. So far this year, legislation has been introduced to reauthorize grant programs that assist runaway and homeless youth. The House, meanwhile, has passed an array of bills that attempt to improve responses for youth who have fallen victim to human trafficking.
Facebook Twitter More...
Read more →

Pages