#juvenile-justice

#juvenile-justice

Khimberly was a seemingly healthy student at Reseda Charter High when she was struck in the head with a metal water bottle during an altercation with campus bullies on Feb. 17, according to her family. Days later, she was rushed to the hospital for emergency brain surgery, placed in a medically induced coma and died. In April, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested a juvenile suspect on suspicion of murder in connection to Khimberly's death.

Public defender Jennifer Redding argued in her closing statement that her client, now 14, acted in self-defense and could reasonably have assumed that Gutierrez was also armed. Redding's defense included evidence that Gutierrez's girlfriend had helped to spur and escalate the fight between the two boys, even allegedly saying, “You're going to fight my boyfriend one on one,” and that the two had been known to get in public conflicts with others.

Henning defines “teen takeovers” as a group of teenagers who get together at a designated time and location to do what teenagers do—socialize, hang out with friends and spend time outdoors. These gatherings have been covered by the media in metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C. Critics complain these gatherings or flashmobs are too large, disruptive and dangerous, as some meetups have turned violent.

Adult crime, adult punishment. That's the logic behind the bill championed by Argentine President Javier Milei to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14, which was approved this Thursday in the Chamber of Deputies. The new Juvenile Criminal Code, which received 149 votes in favor and 100 against, was debated for more than eight hours and now goes to the Senate for final approval.

Over the last several years, we've watched something deeply troubling unfold in our city: Kids-some as young as 12, 13 years old-are being pulled into violent crimes by adults who know exactly how to exploit our system,

Me first joining the program, I was incarcerated... I was like, woah, I've never done this before. It helped me escape from the reality I was in, and it helped me belong,

If this case remains in juvenile court, the shooter will face at most three to five years in a secure juvenile facility. I don't believe that is sufficient in this case," Rosen said during a press conference Wednesday morning outside the county's Juvenile Center in San José. He said a sentence of several years wouldn't allow enough time for meaningful rehabilitation.

The 17-year-old boy walked across Valley Fair shopping mall on Black Friday, police said, accompanied by a young woman, her baby in a stroller and a loaded semi-automatic handgun. When he encountered a man in rival gang colors on the mall's second floor, police said, nothing seemed to deter him: not his recent arrest and probation on a weapons charge, not the mall's ubiquitous surveillance cameras and not the potential of hitting innocent shoppers on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Geyser was 12 in 2014 when she pleaded guilty to stabbing a sixth-grade classmate to appease the mythical Slender Man. Geyser, now 23, was picked up 24 hours later 100 miles away at a truck stop outside Chicago in the company of 43-year-old Chad Charley Mecca, a transgender woman. She had cut off her monitoring ankle bracelet. Mecca said in a phone call to the Wisconsin news outlet WKOW, she ran because of me.

One student could not write his name. Over three sessions, which turned out to be all the time they had together before he left the facility, they practiced reading and writing his first name, last name, date of birth, and address. "I don't know what's to come for him, but at least I know he walked out with those skills," said Leyva. For her, part of defining success includes "creating the possibility for them to believe that they can learn."

"I felt like I couldn't fight," Fehler testified.

Majors, 18, an aspiring punk-rock musician, fought like hell, biting Weaver in the finger and causing him to fly into a rage, stabbing her as feathers flew out of her down jacket. Davis admitted to picking up a knife dropped by Weaver and handing it back to him. Lewis held Majors in a headlock, and Weaver repeatedly knifed her, piercing her heart and leaving her to die.

The attorney with the city's District Attorney's office had initially requested for the court to grant a "707 transfer hearing" that would officially move the case from a juvenile court to an adult criminal court. EXCLUSIVE: Video shows moment Ricky Pearsall shooting suspect flees Union Square crime scene The Public Defender's attorney said the teen is a product of childhood trauma, neglect and the foster care system,

Over a decade ago, filmmaker Mimi Chakarova began following a cohort of young people trying to turn their lives around by becoming firefighters and medics through Bay EMT, a free training program. The result of that relationship-building, , shares their stories and the way they intersect with sweeping social issues like crime, public health, poverty, and inequity in a documentary that has the intimacy of a home video.

"I remember coming out of the theater and feeling upset and needing to decompress and grab a drink," Chakarova said. "That's when Randall West, the same firefighter I met a year before walked into the same place I was. Randall said: 'You want to do a documentary of unrecognized heroes? You've got to talk to Wellington. You've got to do a documentary about the kids who are in his program'."

A 16-year-old boy pleaded guilty to being an accessory after a mass shooting that left two men dead and three others injured in Etobicoke.

Lloyd Francis, a 21-year-old with extensive criminal history, was able to evade severe punishment due to the state's Raise the Age Law, having spent only two years incarcerated despite multiple serious charges including attempted murder.

The unnamed 16-year-old involved in the February 14 death of David Gutierrez was sentenced to two years in a secure facility at Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall, the maximum sought by Gutierrez's family.

"This trial has been hard... I feel like us yelling out of our lungs, it meant something." - Diana Gutierrez, aunt of David Gutierrez, expressing the emotional toll and relief following the verdict.

Sen. William Smith emphasizes the urgent need to clean up an overgrown cemetery in Prince George's County, which contains unmarked graves of Black children sent to a 19th-century juvenile facility. He believes acknowledging these deaths is crucial to addressing systemic issues within Maryland's juvenile justice system.

The trauma from both incidents, Brou said, has stayed with him to this day.

Probation officers are not clinicians and this tool removes this type of decision making from the probation officer.

It's like a little jungle. Everybody wants to be tough. Everybody wants to fight. It's a lot to go through.