PRISON FELLOWSHIP BLOG: Juvenile Justice

"I was certified as an adult when I was 17 years old and have been locked up for the last 15 years," Robert writes from the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Lino Lakes.

According to this article, it’s not uncommon for minors to be tried as adults in New Jersey. It’s even less uncommon for them to be a minority.

Here’s how it works:

If a young person—under the age of 18—commits a serious-enough crime, like robbery, drug trafficking, or murder, a county prosecutor can petition the court to try the minor as an adult.

Kevin Bethel was in charge of school police in Philadelphia when he started researching juvenile crime.

“I was shocked to see we were locking up 1,600 kids a year,” Bethel tells Philly.com. “And I was shocked to see the offenses kids were being locked up for.”

The Philadelphia School District established a zero-tolerance policy in 2002.

For Prison Fellowship Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy Craig DeRoche, justice reform is more than a job, it’s a passion developed from personal experience.

At the age of 34, DeRoche was elected Speaker of the House in the Michigan State Legislature—the youngest person to ever hold that position.

When David arrived at San Quentin prison two years ago to serve an 11-year sentence for a crime he committed as a minor, he didn’t expect to find hope or a second chance. But thanks to a department of corrections-sponsored program that gives young prisoners more access to education and rehabilitative programming, David has been given both.

Roughly 60,000 teenagers currently reside in juvenile detention facilities across the United States.  While detained, these young men and women are separated from their friends, family—and the schools which they had been attending.

A recent feature on the PBS Newshour takes a closer look at the importance of educating youth behind bars, focusing on the efforts being made at one facility in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Although the number of children in detention centers has dramatically decreased over the past 15 years, there are still an estimated 55,000 juveniles behind bars. Regardless of whether they have committed a crime, they have the right to an education that must be provided for while in the detention center.

What is the best way to keep young people in troubled areas away from criminal behavior? A new book suggests that one of the keys is identifying a hobby or activity that will draw attention away from illicit activity and give youth a meaning and purpose that transcends their current environment.

By the time he was 19, Jeff Henderson had established himself as one of the premier drug dealers in southern California.  He was making $35,000 a week by age 21—driving fancy cars and living the life of a street celebrity.

But all that came to an end at 24, when he was sentenced to 19.5 years in prison.

The following column originally appeared in the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, a national news site that covers juvenile justice issues daily, and appears here with permission.

The other day I visited a young black man from Philadelphia doing time for an armed robbery.