Does Jailing Juveniles Lead To More Crime?
When kids are convicted of crimes, judges often have a choice: they can send those kids to jail, or they can place them in programs that don’t involve incarceration. Options include electronic home...
View ArticleWashington Juvenile Killers Could Get Second Chance At Release
In Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that automatic life without parole for juvenile killers is unconstitutional.
View ArticleACLU Takes On Case Of Idaho Teen In Solitary Confinement
The ACLU of Idaho has joined the fight to move an accused teenage killer out of solitary confinement and back into juvenile detention.
View ArticlePrison Debt Forces Ex-Inmate To Be ‘Content With Being Broke’
Karen Taylor is at a park near where she grew up in Renton. She comes here to pray and to walk. "My mother used to walk this trail," she said. "It's a nice place. Quiet. Serene." Taylor's childhood...
View ArticleRacial stress: What 3 Seattle therapists are seeing
In downtown Seattle, therapist Robert Gant heard from a father who felt hopeless. The man had told his sons, ages 12 and 9, that they should obey police. “Whatever, Dad,” the boys said. “They’ll still...
View ArticleShould kids in jail talk with their lawyers before cops?
At any given time about 50 young people are booked into the juvenile detention facility on East Alder Street in Seattle. Some are awaiting trial, others are booked because there’s no adult to release...
View ArticleKing County Executive proposes centers to help reduce youth detention
King County executive Dow Constantine is calling for the creation of two new centers to help keep young people in King County out of jail. In his annual State of the County address Monday, Constantine...
View ArticleThis is what King County's 'Safe Spaces' could look like
Bill Radke talks with Dennis Morrow, executive director of Janus Youth Programs, about Portland's Juvenile Reception Centers. King County proposed opening two similar centers for youth accused of low...
View ArticleNew rule: Detained kids must see a lawyer before speaking to cops
Young people who are detained by law enforcement in King County can no longer waive their right to an attorney on their own. On Monday, the King County Council unanimously approved a motion meant to...
View ArticleDark, sad poetry by kids in Seattle's juvenile jail
The girl had been raped as a child. Years later, she was in juvenile detention in Seattle, telling her story to Richard Gold, who was helping her write a poem.
View ArticleTwo short poems from Seattle's juvenile jail
CHICAGO ON THE SOUTH SIDE By a young man in juvenile detention, age 15 Everybody should know that when I was younger I was at school one day, I went straight from lunch to recess. My brother was...
View Article'I Will Not Ask The System Politely To Dismantle Itself'
Troy Osaki is on the verge of graduating law school. But the law, he says, is not enough. What about poetry?
View ArticleNeeded: Black mentors to keep kids out of jail. Comeback stories a plus
Alternative sentencing programs have reduced the number of kids in King County’s juvenile jail, but they’re still disproportionately black. The county council’s Law and Justice Committee got an update...
View ArticleWhen people in charge are mostly white, what’s a black kid in jail to think?
When black youth enter the criminal justice system, most of the people in authority they come into contact with — social workers, lawyers, the jury — are white. Diontae Moore-Lyons, 17, is currently...
View ArticleWhy King County no longer prosecutes kids who beat their parents
Vicky used to hide the knives in her home, but not because of the ex-husband who she says was abusive. She was being beaten by her 13-year-old son.
View ArticlePublic health to oversee King County youth detention
King County Executive Dow Constantine is making a change he says will help the county with its effort to dramatically reduce the practice of detaining young people arrested for crimes. Constantine...
View ArticleRead these lyrics about regret from incarcerated youth
Two young men created this song at the Echo Glen Children's Center, a maximum security facility in Snoqualmie, in a series of workshops with RadioActive Youth Media . This was RadioActive's first...
View ArticleShould Washington Prohibit Juvenile Detention For Truants?
In recent years, Washington state has led the nation in locking up kids for running away, skipping school and other non-criminal behavior. Now state lawmakers are considering whether to ban juvenile...
View ArticleMy uncle killed four cops. But I’ve lived with death all my life.
Every person was born in this world with a certain purpose. Some people say you don't know your purpose until it's too late. I believe that because a lot of my brothers died under age 21, before they...
View ArticleNikkita Oliver refuses to debate youth jail without live audience
This week Dow Constantine, the King County executive, agreed to a debate on the Seattle Channel about the new youth jail. On Friday, activist and attorney Nikkita Oliver tweeted that she wouldn’t...
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