Leaders of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) will speak at public hearings on a new juvenile justice initiative being billed as “reform,” but which, in reality, will put youths and the community at risk. The new Close to Home initiative focuses on reducing the placement of troubled youths in facilities operated by [...]
The Following is a verbatum copy of the letter from former OCFS employee Ed Ausborn. This letter is a response to a letter from B. Baccaglini to the times union about a new program called BLUE SKIES ( Placing NYC youth in their home for treatment instead of Upstate Facilities ). Juveniles Deserve Better I [...]
Continue reading about NY. What an OCFS insider has to say about OCFS’ Juvenile Policies
Clifton police are defending an officer who used force to break up an after-school fight, throwing a punch at a teenage boy who allegedly interfered repeatedly while police tried to stop the scuffle, as shown in a video in YouTube. An amateur video shows the unidentified officer shoving the Clifton teen onto the ground and [...]
Violence is on the rise at a handful of Maryland’s juvenile detention facilities. Staff members at the Victor Cullen Center used handcuffs to restrain youths nearly 200 times in 2011, up from 36 times in 2010. At Cheltenham Youth Facility, riots and other “group disturbances” took place 65 times in 2011, up from a dozen [...]
Continue reading about MD. Violence continues to increase at Maryland’s youth facilities
Three officers at the Rome Youth Detention Center have been cleared of charges alleging that they ordered youth-on-youth assaults at the female facility, but one of them has been fired for failing to prevent an assault, according to the Department of Juvenile Justice. In her own testimony, India Jones admitted that she overheard a female [...]
Finally, Georgia seems to have a YDC Director with some common sense. The past administration that couldn’t let the exit door hit them in the ass fast enough. When the past administration took over and changed the YDC’s policies to where staff could no longer maintain control over the juvenile population, the staff called what [...]
The Prince George’s County youth detention center where a teacher was killed in 2010 saw a huge jump in assaults last year,according to a new report. The report by the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit, the watchdog for Maryland’s youth facilities, found that youth-on-youth assaults at the Cheltenham Youth Facility climbed from 221 in 2010 to 370 in [...]
Continue reading about MD. Violence Spikes at MD’s Prince George’s Youth Detention Center
On the heels of an attack on a juvenile justice specialist, there are new calls for reforming how the state deals with young offenders. The incident last week at the Bridge City Center for Youth involved several male juvenile inmates “manhandling” a female juvenile justice specialist. It is just the latest troubling incident for a [...]
Continue reading about LA. Attack at Juvenile Center spurs calls for change
David Muhammad has a checkered past in Juvenile Justice where NY and CA Juvenile Justice Departments are picking up DC and Maryland Juvenile Justice rejects in what amounts to a revolving door of incompetent administrators. Here’s the past story: In 2010 DC Mayor Adrian Fenty fired the head of the DC’s juvenile rehabilitation agency under [...]