The Illinois Supreme Court says a teenager was improperly locked up for underage consumption of alcohol. As IPR's Brian Mackey reports, the case began with a 14-year-old drinking in Champaign County.
Illinois Supreme Court rules on what can land juvenile offenders in prison Read Full Article »
Governor Pat Quinn today made key appointments to the Truancy in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Task Force which has been charged with identifying different strategies and approaches to help educators and CPS administration address the truancy problems in the City of Chicago. Today’s action is part of Governor Quinn’s agenda to prepare every child for success in college, career and beyond.
Governor Pat Quinn today announced the next step in developing a cutting-edge partnership between Illinois, community organizations and private investors to provide better opportunities for at-risk youth. Illinois is the third state in the nation to move forward with Social Impact Bonds – a performance-driven approach to funding programs that solve pressing community challenges by investing in prevention. The initiative is part of Governor Quinn’s agenda to foster innovation across Illinois, expand career pathways for youth and make government smarter.
It's taken about two years, countless meetings and a nearly $150,000 study, but Champaign County is about to embark on what could be a major reworking of its criminal justice system….
County nearing start of criminal justice system overhaul Read Full Article »
A new report from the prison watchdog John Howard Association says mental health treatment in Illinois youth prisons is so bad that judges need to stop sending kids with mental health needs to them. The scathing report was released on Thursday. It is the latest in a series of studies that are highly critical of the care and education within the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice.
Watchdog to judges: Stop putting kids with mental health needs in prison Read Full Article »
After hearing about the Chicago shooting last week in which 13 were injured in Cornell Square Park, including a three-year-old, I and writer Mikki Kendall, both Chicago residents, had very different reactions. It’s "not just the park incident," Kendall told me by email. "20 people were shot this weekend. People are being shot almost daily. And I have a 14 year-old son who can't go to the McDonald's in Hyde Park at lunch because the school has noticed an uptick in crime at that location." I was depressed and horrified, too — but depressed and horrified in the way that you are when you hear about gun violence anywhere. Unlike Kendall, I wasn't directly concerned about the safety of my family.
How Bad Is Violence in Chicago? Depends on Your Race Read Full Article »
The Wall Street Journal had a good piece recently about the prevalence of false confessions among teenage criminal suspects, and what police departments might be able to do to drop that number. Here’s Zusha Elinson:
Juveniles are more likely than adults to confess to crimes they didn't commit, a growing body of evidence suggests. Thirty-eight percent of exonerations for crimes allegedly committed by youth under 18 in the last quarter century involved false confessions, compared with 11% for adults, according to a new database of 1,155 individuals who were wrongly convicted and later cleared of all charges.
Underage Suspects Are Apt to Confess to Crimes They Didn’t Commit. Here’s Why. Read Full Article »
Illinois' youth prison system is violating the constitutional rights of inmates by failing to provide adequate mental health care and education and by unnecessarily keeping youths in solitary confinement, three court-appointed experts found this week.
State's youth prison system violates inmates' rights, experts say Read Full Article »
Justice came slowly for the “Englewood Four.” Seventeen years after being convicted and imprisoned as teenagers for a rape and murder they did not commit, they were finally cleared by a judge. During interrogations, all four had falsely confessed to the 1994 rape and murder of a 30-year-old prostitute in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.
Why Do So Many Juvenile Suspects Confess to Crimes They Didn’t Commit? Read Full Article »
The United States imprisons more people than any other country — and a staggering number are juveniles. In fact, about half a million juveniles a year enter detention centers, not including those tried as adults, according to the Justice Policy Institute, a nonprofit organization that supports alternatives to incarceration. Sadly, our school system is contributing to the problem. Too many children are denied their right to a quality education and instead set on a path toward failure and incarceration.
Why Zero Tolerance Means More Kids in Jail Read Full Article »
