NEWS ARCHIVE

Request for Information

The New York Times Magazine is reporting an article on juvenile sexual offenders, which the editor expects to be a cover story. The magazine wants to report on states that post juvenile offenders’ identifying information on their Internet sex offenders' registries.  The article will examine the effect these registries may have on a child's future, both in terms of school and jobs, as well as peer relations. Also, the magazine will be reporting on research on the differences between juveniles and adult sexual offenders and the ways in which juveniles are more responsive to treatment and have much lower recidivism rates.

Specifically, the reporter is looking for stories of youth who have been convicted of a related offense and placed on a registry.  The children's and family's identities will be protected. While the New York Times cannot use pseudonyms, the magazine can use a middle name or a nickname for a child or their parents. Photos will not be necessary.

If you have a relevant case and feel it would be appropriate to speak with this reporter, please contact Maggie Jones, a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine at jonesmp@aol.com or 617-795-2711.

If you have questions about this request, please contact Elizabeth Kehoe at 202.452.0010 x103 or ekehoe@njdc.info

Is There Justice in the Juvenile Justice System? Examining the Role of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

The Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice presents this research brief, written by Sharon J. Williams, on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and how they affect children enmeshed in the juvenile justice system. To access this article, please click on the link below.

http://www.cjcj.org/pdf/is_there.pdf

Georgia truants keep driving

By ANDREA JONES, HEATHER VOGELL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/24/06

If you wanted to skip lots of high school and keep your driver's license, you've been luckier if you've been a student in Atlanta and not in Gwinnett County.

While state law dictates that students who miss 10 days without excuses have their licenses suspended, several systems in Georgia, including Atlanta city schools, haven't been diligent about reporting truant or disruptive kids who should qualify for the penalty to the state, records obtained Tuesday from the state Department of Education reveal.

Atlanta schools spokesman Joe Manguno acknowledged that the system had reported no data to the state since 2003.

......

Statewide, about 11,700 students saw their licenses suspended in 2005 following school complaints about absences, violence or other discipline problems, Department of Driver Services data show.

More than 70 percent of the license suspensions — or nearly 8,600 — were for absences. Another 1,800 were for dropping out of school. Almost 800 were for possession of drugs or alcohol, and the rest were for violence or possession of a weapon, data shows.

Read the whole article>>

The Washington Post
May 20, 2006

Tactics To Get DNA Disputed
Md. Teen Indicted After Swabbing

By Avis Thomas-Lester

The case of a 14-year-old Prince George's County boy, linked to a sexual assault after police stopped him on a street corner and swabbed him for DNA, could break legal ground on when and how police secure such evidence from juvenile offenders, legal experts said.

Dominick L. Edelen, the Temple Hills boy being charged as an adult, was indicted last week on one count of sexual assault in connection with a March
29 incident involving a 13-year-old girl. Edelen was arrested April 21 and is being held without bond at the Prince George's jail.

Edelen's attorney, Richard Finci, has now filed a motion to throw out the DNA evidence and dismiss the indictment, saying his client did not give "knowing and voluntary consent" to the taking of the DNA sample.

Police officers, he said, lied about why they wanted the sample and left the impression that the boy's father had given his consent. The teenager signed a consent form only after giving a sample, his father said. Prince George's police would not discuss the case, but court records indicate that the officer had no search warrant to take the sample and that Edelen was not under arrest.

The case in the county Circuit Court pits police, who rely increasingly on DNA to solve cases, against defense attorneys and civil liberties advocates who say courts need to establish better guidelines on how such evidence is secured from those younger than 18.

Read the whole article>>

SAN FRANCISCO
Juveniles in U.S. prisons win time-served right

Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 3, 2006

A federal appeals court, in a ruling affecting hundreds of youths in federal custody nationwide, said Tuesday that juveniles have the same right as adults to get their sentences reduced by the amount of time they have been locked up since their arrests.

In a case from Arizona, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned a 1999 U.S. Bureau of Prisons policy that refused to give juveniles who are sentenced for federal crimes any credit for presentencing confinement.

As a result of the ruling, the first by any federal appeals court on the issue, the policy will be changed to treat juveniles the same as adults, said Sandy Raynor, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix, which represented the Bureau of Prisons. The court oversees federal courts in California, Arizona and seven other Western states.

The ruling affects youths charged with federal crimes committed before age 18. According to the Bureau of Prisons Web site, a majority of juveniles in federal custody are American Indians whose crimes were committed on reservations, subjecting them to federal jurisdiction. Other crimes, such as those involving drugs, guns or gangs, can also be federally prosecuted, but usually are handled by state authorities, said Robert McWhirter, the assistant federal public defender who argued Tuesday's case.

His client, a 17-year-old identified as Jonah R., was arrested in June 2001 for firing a gun from a car that police pulled over on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation near Phoenix, McWhirter said. After successfully appealing a decision to prosecute him as an adult, Jonah R. was charged and convicted as a juvenile and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in a federal juvenile prison in June 2004.

An adult receiving the same sentence would have been released at that point because he would have been credited with the nearly three years he had been confined before sentencing. But Jonah R. was denied any sentence reduction under the Bureau of Prisons policy and was sent to the juvenile prison, where he is being held. The ruling entitles him to immediate release. The policy was based on a 1998 ruling by a federal judge in the U.S. Virgin Islands, who said juveniles in federal custody were "delinquents'' in "official detention'' and thus were not entitled to sentencing credits available for criminal defendants jailed before their trials.

But the appeals court said Tuesday that the federal system for juvenile offenders, established in the 1930s primarily for rehabilitation, was not intended to be more punitive than the adult system.

"We can think of no sensible reason why Jonah's liberty, which he lost for almost three years before his culpability was adjudicated, is worth less than a similarly situated adult's," Judge William Fletcher said in the 3-0 ruling.

On February 21, 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Michigan filed the attached petition in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of 32 juveniles serving sentences of life without parole in Michigan.  The petition requests the Commission to find that the United States and the state of Michigan are violating these youths’ rights under the American Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights laws.  The petition recommends such remedies to the Commission as monetary compensation; a prompt opportunity for consideration of parole for the petitioners; reformation of laws in the US and Michigan that allow youth to be tried as adults; and reformation of laws that allow youth to be sentenced to life without parole.  Congratulations to Deborah LaBelle and other members of the team who worked on this petition!

Download the petition here.

US: Campaign 4 Youth Justice Seeks Juveniles Prosecuted in Adult System

Do you know someone who is under age 18 and currently incarcerated in an adult correctional facility?

Do you know someone who is over 18, in an adult correctional facility, but went into adult prison or jail before turning 18?

Do you know someone who was ever in an adult prison or jail before age 18?

If you answered yes to any of the above, Campaign 4 Youth Justice wants to hear from you!

C4YJ is interested in learning more about the impact of state laws that require youth to be prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system. The Campaign 4 Youth Justice will use the information to inform policymakers. However, identifying information will be kept strictly confidential and they will not refer to an individual's case by name or release any information without prior written informed consent.

Stories can be submitted at: http://www.campaign4youthjustice.org/story.htm.

Wisconsin: Report Questions Prosecuting Juveniles as Adults in Lieu of Brain Science

The Wisconsin Council on Children and Families (WCCF) has released a new report examining adolescent brain development and how youth are treated in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. The report calls on Wisconsin’s policy makers to repeal the law that allows 17-year-olds to be automatically tried and sentenced as adults for any offense.

“Most people recognize that ‘kids will be kids’,” said Wendy Henderson, a WCCF policy analyst and one of the report’s co-authors. “However, 17-year-olds across the state are treated as adults for any law violation. Drinking, loitering, egging a house, typical adolescent behavior, can have significant lifelong consequences for our high school juniors and seniors. They are booked as adults and put in the county jail. Many adolescents and their parents are unaware that 17-year-olds are adults for all offenses, and that children as young as 10 can be tried as adults in Wisconsin. The seriousness of a lifelong criminal record is simply out of proportion to the impulsive nature of most adolescent crimes.”

The full text, executive summary, and press release of Rethinking the Juvenile in Juvenile Justice is available at the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families’ website at: http://www.wccf.org/.

Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, The Marcus Institute, and The Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia present the
2005-2006 PROFESSIONAL SEMINAR SERIES

Seminars are free and offered to parents and professionals from all disciplines serving the needs of children and youth in Georgia. Registration is first come/first serve basis but space is limited. Click here for schedule and registration information.

D.O.J. Announces Graduated
Sanctions Policy (PDF file)

Georgia Department of Human Resources Establishes New Office for Child and Adolescent Mental Health

June 16, 2005

ATLANTA – Last year, the Department of Human Resources (DHR) Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases (MHDDAD) served more than 40,000 children and adolescents with severe emotional disturbances.   In Georgia, one in every five youth is impacted by mental health problems.   As the need for mental health services continues to increase, DHR is taking new measures including the creation of a new office for child and adolescent mental health.

“Georgia’s mental health system is changing and that includes how DHR will serve our most vulnerable population,” states Gwen Skinner, Director for MHDDAD. “What we know for fact is that children are best served in the communities where they are connected to a broad range of services.  The principle objective for the new office for Children and Adolescent Mental Health is to build systems of care.  Each child with a serious emotional disorder will be served in effective, coordinated, comprehensive, community-based services under systems of care.  This is the most effective way to keep our children healthy and successful.”

A five-year Child and Adolescent State Infrastructure Grant will also support the mission of MHDDAD’s office of Child and Adolescent Mental Health.  Awarded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the grant will be instrumental in enhancing Georgia’s a community-based mental health system.

Among many enhanced and new community–based services, MHDDAD will open the state’s first crisis stabilization program for children in Savannah this year.

School Crime Continues to Decline

The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics recently released their seventh annual Indicators of School Crime and Safety. This report is based on statistics on school crime and student safety from a variety of federal sources.

This year's findings include:

• Between 1994 and 2002, violent victimizations at school decreased from 48 per 1,000 students to 24.
• Less than 3 percent of students reported being a victim of violent crime in 2003.
• In 2003, 22 percent of students in grades 9-12 reported using marijuana during the past 30 days. Of those, 6 percent reported using it on school property.
• In 2003, about 7 percent of public and private school students ages 12-18 reported being bullied at school within the past 6 months. Public school students reported higher rates of bullying than private school students (7percent and 5 percent, respectively). Rural students are more likely than urban and suburban students to report being bullied (10 percent of rural students vs. 7 percent each of urban and suburban students).

Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2004 is available online (link to pdf file) or by calling the National Criminal Justice Reference Service at 800-851-3420.