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What happens when crime victims and offenders meet? Outagamie County is finding out.

Chris Mueller

November 05, 2021 |

Appleton Post-Crescent |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Appleton, Wisconsin

The Outagamie County Youth and Family Services agency makes restorative justice dialogue available to the victims of crimes committed by juveniles. After preparation with a trained mediator, the two parties meet to discuss the harm suffered by a victim and why a young person committed the offense. Both can be helped through a face-to-face conversation. The county is now considering expanding the program to adults.

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Orlando man's 7th arrest in 7 years raises questions about mental competency system

Erik Sandoval

October 29, 2021 |

WKMG-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Orlando, Florida

Orange County, Florida, courts have ordered thousands of mental-competency hearings in recent years to test whether criminal defendants are mentally capable of facing charges. If they are not, they get released, leaving mental illnesses untreated and leading to repeat cycles of arrest and release that sap public resources and threaten public safety. Miami-Dade’s Criminal Mental Health Project offers a more effective model, in which police officers are trained to call in mental health professionals who can get the person into treatment rather than jail.

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A pilot program in Iowa produces encouraging results for foster kids

Libby Dowsett

October 27, 2021 |

Street Roots |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Iowa

By putting a priority on rescuing children from danger in their homes by reducing the danger or placing the children in relatives' care, Iowa courts have greatly reduced the traumatizing use of emergency foster care placements with strangers. The program, which began with seven judges and has since spread statewide, starts with a simple list of questions that judges or social workers ask to identify specific solutions to problems other than the default mechanism of sending children to live in foster care, which can make their emotional problems worse.

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How one woman shed $350,000 in student loans — without a lawyer

Irina Ivanova

September 28, 2021 |

CBS News |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

People who cannot afford their student loan payments are filing discharges themselves and proving to the court why paying back the loans would create undue hardship to have their loans forgiven.

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In Arizona, a radical change in juvenile detention

Ruxandra Guidi

September 20, 2021 |

High Country News |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Johns, Arizona

Unrealistic fears of a wave of youth violence left rural Apache County, Colorado, with an unused, costly youth detention facility. So the local courts decided to refashion the empty jail into the Loft Legacy Teen Center, an after-school hangout offering a "care-first" approach to teen problems. Mentors and a truancy prevention program help youth avoid trouble and get educations. Youth arrests have dropped, though that might also be credited to the state's risk-assessment tool that is meant to guard against overuse of punishment.

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He Beat Her Repeatedly. Family Court Tried to Give Him Joint Custody of Their Children.

Megan O'Matz

September 16, 2021 |

ProPublica |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a leader in the movement to treat fathers as equal caregivers and to prioritize shared custody in divorces. But this fathers' rights reform, combined with outmoded ideas about women who allege domestic violence, often forces domestic violence victims to maintain frequent communication with their abusers and to turn over their children to violent former spouses for visits. Although the shared-custody law does exempt cases of serious domestic violence, advocates say the law allows large exceptions, makes proving allegations too hard, and is overseen by courts dismissive of women's allegations.

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Where Juvenile Detention Looks More Like Teens Hanging Out

Ruxandra Guidi

September 13, 2021 |

70 Million |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, St. Johns, Arizona

Apache County, Arizona, once had a costly, under-used juvenile detention center and a traditional philosophy that stern punishment would steer young people away from misbehavior. Now the abandoned detention center is The Loft Legacy Teen Center, an after-school hangout with mentors, connections to social services, and a place where youth can go to socialize – a rare commodity in this rural community. It's run and staffed by the court system and its probation department. But its methods are love and support, not threats of arrest and incarceration. Juvenile arrests are now way down.

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Eagle County problem-solving courts offer new hope to repeat offenders battling substance abuse

Kelli Duncan

September 09, 2021 |

Vail Daily |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Eagle, Colorado

Eagle County's two problem-solving courts put treatment ahead of punishment when addressing crimes committed by people with substance abuse problems. Originally set up as one court, they now function separately to address drunken driving and drugs and serve people "teetering on the edge of serious prison time" for repeat offenses. More than 90 percent of participants in 2020 maintained sobriety and more than 80 percent avoided new legal troubles. While the threat of punishment is used to win compliance with rules, prosecutors say they're more interested in permanently curing the underlying disease.

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Since when is being a teenager a crime?

Eda Uzunlar

August 07, 2021 |

Reveal |

Illustrations |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Wyoming

Neighboring states of Wyoming and South Dakota take starkly different approaches toward youth who get in trouble. Side-by-side comic panels follow two real cases through each system. A South Dakota teen gets help that steers her off a destructive path. A Wyoming teen gets punished, and ends up in a downward spiral of more trouble and more punishment. Both states once had relatively high youth incarceration rates. Now only one of them, Wyoming, does: the second-worst in the U.S., and three times the national average.

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Federal monitors cost millions, with disputed results. Seattle's police watchdog was a case in point.

David Nakamura

August 02, 2021 |

The Washington Post |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

Federal consent decrees install court-appointed monitors to oversee reforms agreed to by a police department and the U.S. Justice Department after federal officials have found a department violates people's civil rights. In Seattle, a long-running monitor program oversaw great improvement in the police department's use of force. But the project turned so acrimonious that the monitor called the department a failure and the department said the monitor lacked accountability and a sensible yardstick to measure success. The Biden administration has revived the program nationwide but is studying ways to fix it.

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