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:
- Marsha Levick, co-founder of Juvenile Law Center, was announced as the winner of the 2015 Philadelphia Award.
- Why does Maryland shackle youth in juvenile court? The state also routinely strip-searches youth when they're sent to a juvenile facility.
- Pennsylvania prioritizes "normalcy" for foster youth while implementing the federal Strengthening Familiest Act.
- Following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Montgomery v. Louisiana, a New Orleans judge re-sentenced a 21-year-old man to life without parole for a murder conviction at age 15, which "prosecutors acknowledged was unintentional."
- In Virginia, advocates make headway towards extending foster care to age 21.
- Washington state is considering two bills to reform the state's juvenile justice system by focusing more on rehabilitation.
- A new program in Virginia, The Possibilities Project, is working to help struggling former foster youth.
- California pushes to move more foster kids into families, not group homes, but not all are in favor of this movement.
- Iowa Governor Terry Brandstad signed into law a new bill that will make juvenile records, except felony charges, confidential.
- Jacob, now 25, spent 151 days in a juvenile facility; he was held in solitary confinement for at least one third of that time.
- The U.S. Department of Justice has condemned for-profit courts for targeting poor adults, but the criminalization of poverty is just as damaging to youth in the juvenile and adult justice systems.
- The case against felony murder: youth can be held accountable without being charged with a murder they didn't commit.
Did we miss a big story? Email us at [email protected] with your headline