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:
- On Monday, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Montgomery v. Louisiana, that the 2012 decision in Miller, which banned life-sentencing without parole to juvenile offenders, applies retroactively. This decision will allow hundreds of inmates serving life sentences the chance at parole.
- President Obama has announced a ban on solitary confinement for juvenile offenders in the federal prison system. President Obama hopes that these changes will serve as a model for state and local corrections systems.
- State officials in Texas are asking for a series of requirements, which a federal judge ruled neccessary to improve the foster care system, be suspended.
- The Center for Missing and Exploited Children have announced that 74% of the children reported missing to them in 2015 were in foster care. Many of these children are also likely to become sex trafficking victims.
- "Foster Jump," an app created to raise awareness of the challenges youth who "age out" of foster care face, has gained recognition from Google.
- In Delaware, advocates are pushing to end the use of shackling on youth during court proceedings.
- Louisiana is one of nine states were 17-year-olds are automatically tried as adult offenders. Advocates are pushing to raise the age to 18.
Did we miss a big story? Email us at [email protected] with your headline.