Editorial: Losing tolerance over zero-tolerance policies

from the Denver Post:

Few events have shaped school discipline policies the way the 1999 Columbine High School massacre has — not just in Colorado but around the nation.

Zero tolerance became a catchphrase for "doing-everything-possible-to-make-sure-this-never-happens-again."

Jan 27, 2012 Policy, School, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:USA

• Read More

Mass incarceration

from the transcript on Religion & Ethics:

POTTER: More than two million Americans are now imprisoned, four times as many as 30 years ago. The major reason: mandatory sentencing for non-violent crimes and drug charges. But the war on drugs, declared in the 1980s, has not had the effect its backers predicted. Arkansas Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen has seen the results.

JUDGE WENDELL GRIFFEN (Arkansas Circuit Court): Drug use has not declined. All it has done has produced an explosion on our prison population. The whole mandatory sentencing guideline mantra was sort of like the Kool-Aid that we should never have drunk.

Jan 18, 2012 Retribution, Story, Theory, Region: North America and Caribbean, Policy, Politics, Country:USA

• Read More

Everychild gives $1 million to Juvenile Justice Center

from the article in Palisadian-Post:

Centinela Youth Services, Inc. has been named the recipient of the $1 million 2012 Everychild Foundation grant. The funds will launch and sustain a restorative justice center across the street from three Los Angeles juvenile courts over a three-year period.

Specifically, the grant will be used to create and operate the center, including the funding of dedicated staff and partner agencies for services provided there. Everychild's grant will provide the remaining 60 percent of the $1.6-million total program cost.

Jan 09, 2012 Funding, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:USA

• Read More

Chicago Heights school helps launch anti-violence initiative

from the article by Jessica Villarreal in the Southtown Star:

A number of characters were involved in a troubling incident at school.

Their names fit their roles in the anger-sparked altercation: China Doll, Joe Swag, Bob Lame.

But while the story that was acted out recently in a courtroom at the Daley Center in downtown Chicago was fictional, the program behind it is real and has a serious goal: reducing youth violence in the Chicago area.

Jan 05, 2012 Policy, School, Region: North America and Caribbean, Country:USA

• Read More