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Paige Pierce,
Chief Executive Officer
Brad Hansen,
Public Policy Coordinator
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Our Principles:
Families and youth must be active participants in planning services for their family and in developing and monitoring policies and services within their communities and within the state.
All children, youth and their families must have timely, affordable access to appropriate services within their community.
Children and youth must receive an appropriate education in the least restrictive environment possible.
Families should never have to relinquish custody of their children in order to receive mental health services.
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September 30, 2015, BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
NATIONAL YOUTH JUSTICE AWARENESS MONTH, 2015
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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
All our Nation's children deserve the chance to fulfill their greatest potential, and nothing should limit the scope of their futures. But all too often, our juvenile and criminal justice systems weigh our young people down so heavily that they cannot reach their piece of the American dream. When that happens, America is deprived of immeasurable possibility. This month, we rededicate ourselves to preventing youth from entering the juvenile and criminal justice systems and recommit to building a country where all our daughters and sons can grow, flourish, and take our Nation to new and greater heights.
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October 1, 2015, By
REBECCA DAVIS O'BRIEN, Wall Street Journal
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| Mr. Browder, 16, was at Rikers for three years awaiting trial until a judge dismissed the charges after prosecutors said they couldn't produce their only witness, Judge Lippman said. Mr. Browder committed suicide in June, two years after his release. |
New York City criminal court judges will soon have a broader mandate to review and lower bail amounts in hopes of reducing the number of people in jail, the state's top judge said Thursday.
Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, at a breakfast with the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, outlined a series of measures aimed at addressing what he called an "unsafe and unfair bail system" that keeps tens of thousands of people charged with minor offenses incarcerated because they can't afford bail.
Legislative efforts in Albany to change the bail system have stalled and the proposals can be executed by the judiciary without approval from state lawmakers, Judge Lippman said.
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October 2, 2015, By Vincent Schiraldi and Bruce Western
Just over 100 years ago, there was no separate court for juveniles anywhere in the world. Adolescents were viewed as smaller versions of adults, were prosecuted under the same laws and often sent to the same prisons.
But in 1899, a pioneering group of women - Jane Addams, Lucy Flower and Julia Lathrop - persuaded the state of Illinois to create a separate court to handle juveniles' cases individually, be more rehabilitative and less punitive and ensure that youthful mistakes wouldn't haunt youngsters throughout their lives. The family court was a smashing success,
spreading to 46 states and 16 countries by 1925 and decidedly reducing recidivism compared with trying children as adults.
But while family court's founding mothers got a lot right, the setting of 18 as the court's maximum age was an arbitrary choice based on the mores of the time rather than hard evidence. It's time we expanded the protections and rehabilitative benefits of the family court to young adults.
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