THURSDAY | MAY 23, 2013
Grassroots Groups: More Attention Needed on Poverty
The conversations covered serious topics: Violence, racism, criminal justice and poverty. But participants at this past weekend’s Southern Movement Assembly in Jacksonville, Fla. believe these topics need to be addressed directly and constructively for community progress to take place. More than 300 community organizers, teachers, young people and spiritual leaders from 40 groups met [...] 
A more accurate count of Latinos in the Illinois criminal justice system would lead to better public policy responses and a bill in the state Legislature would help achieve those twin goals, according to a community group. Latinos are the largest minority group in the state. Enlace Chicago reports that the legislation, Senate Bill [...]
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Four years ago, Alabama decided to change its practice of sending young, low-risk, non-violent offenders to the Department of Youth Services. Instead, young people who were in trouble for truancy, low-level property offenses and probation violations, were sent to community programs. As a result, in Alabama, the number of young people incarcerated fell from 1,686 [...]
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A Decade Later, Still Room to Improve Louisiana’s Juvenile Detention Centers
December 3, 2012
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Youth are still being abused by guards, parents are being denied access to their children, and staff turnover rates are still unacceptable. The presentation also highlighted improvements in the number of incarcerated youth (422 in 2012, compared to over 2000 in 2002).
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Tayna Fogle is a grandmother, basketball player extraordinaire, and former addict who spent nearly part a decade in prison. In order to stand up for the issues that were important to her family, she had to bravely defend against harsh drug sentencing policies and learn to navigate bureaucratic mazes to regain her right to vote. [...]
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Critical Healing for Court-Involved Youth Missing in Juvenile Justice System
August 22, 2012
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Research shows three out of four system-involved youth experience some level of trauma. But a culturally relevant response to said trauma, in the system that so inappropriately touches three out of four, just isn’t there. Our response should restore youth beyond just being functional, but to being whole and thriving. In many cases, youthful misbehaviors [...]
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EATONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Wearing hooded sweatshirts similar to the one that Trayvon Martin wore on the night he was killed, many preachers and worshippers echoed calls for justice Sunday in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in Florida last month. The one-month anniversary of Martin’s death is Monday. He was shot while [...]
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WOODLAKE, Calif. (AP) — When Manuel Jimenez first set eyes on the land below a levee, thick with brush and weeds, the one-time field worker envisioned a place where youngsters could escape the temptations of gang life and learn about the Central Valley’s most vital industry. But, like many places in California’s farming belt, this [...]
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SOUTHWEST RANCHES, Fla. (AP) — In one of South Florida’s upscale, rural enclaves, where peacocks roam and horse trails are as common as sidewalks, town leaders decided to bring in much of their money from an unusual business: a prison. Only the leaders of Southwest Ranches kept their plans quiet from residents for almost a [...]
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LeaJay Harper says she was a typically rebellious teenager raised by a single mother. She left home at 17 and lived on the streets, surviving on stale donated bread and sleeping on church porches. When she was 18, she was arrested for stealing a $10 bag of McDonald’s food. “I was hungry,” she said. She [...]
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