the crime report

The following is the true life story of Manos, a young inmate,who wrote this as he leaves the juvenile justice system and enters the adult system.  The letter was originally published by The Beat Within, a juvenile justice system writing workshop, which has generously allowed The Crime Report to share.

Hey Beat, What’s cracking? Today I’m going to talk and write about my long life story from beginning to end. It all started off when I was born in O’Connor Hospital in San Jose. I was born on September 23, 1992. I can’t really remember a lot of my memories from when I was a little kid, but I’ll tell you the ones I do remember.

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The National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN) recommends options for juvenile justice advocates to pursue in states facing budget shortfalls in a new study. The paper  “The Real Costs and Benefits of Change: Finding Opportunities for Reform During Difficult Fiscal Times,“  offers two core ideas: leverage deinstitutionalization and realigning/reducing spending.

Read the study here.

Use the Crime Report for more information on Juvenile Justice.

Waivers of juvenile delinquency cases to adult court are down markedly from their peak in 1994, and black juveniles now make up a smaller proportion of those being transferred, reports Youth Today, citing data from the Pittsburgh-based National Center for Juvenile Justice. Forty-four percent of the 13,100 juveniles transferred in 1994 were black; 37 percent of the 8,500 juveniles waived to adult court in 2007 were black. (more…)

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The system is failing thousands of our most vulnerable youth. Is it time for reform?

The U.S. spends $5 billion a year on juvenile corrections, but it’s hard to argue that taxpayers are getting what they paid for.  Many criminologists already agree that the country’s criminal justice system is overdue for reform; but no area seems more in need of urgent attention than juvenile justice.

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