What's on our radar this week
Each week, Juvenile Law Center gathers the latest studies, reports, and headlines from around the country. Here's what we've been reading:
- Throughout 2015, several legislative advancements have improved the nation's criminal justice system.
- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced a plan to pardon thousands of individuals who were convicted of nonviolent crimes as juveniles.
- Pennsylvania has joined the national trend of pushing child welfare agencies to find kin for youth in care, with the percentage of Pennsylvania youth in kinship care up 24% since 2012.
- As the number of children in state care has increased, both Alaska and Georgia face a foster care crisis.
- In Richmond, Virginia, the Law Enforcement Intervention Focused on Education (LIFE) program is moving forward in an attempt to reduce the number of students ending up in jail.
- The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that prison terms that amount to life-without-parole sentences for juveniles who have committed crimes other than murder are unconstitutional.
- A new collection of laws in Illinois aim to reduce the number of juveniles that enter the state's prison system.
- In Florida, bills are moving in the House and Senate that would limit the ability of Florida prosecutors to charge juveniles as adult offenders, a legal practice knows as "direct file." Since the proposal of these bills, the state has experienced a decrease in juvenile arrests.
- A new report by The Marshall Project has discovered that juvenile life without parole sentences are clustered in a handful of counties nation-wide and that these sentences are disproportionately linked with people of color.
- Maryland lawmakers have announced a plan for budget increases, and possible laws, to respond to shortcomings in the state's education system for juvenile offenders.
Did we miss a big story? Email us at [email protected] with your headline.