AUSTIN, Texas –Several recent national and Texas studies warn that "tough on crime" attitudes are behind the times – and the science – when it comes to dealing with juveniles.

Treating them as adults can traumatize them and harms their rehabilitation chances, according to Ian Kysel, whose American Civil Liberties Union report concludes that still-developing teens who have veered off course require special services the adult system cannot provide.

"Young people who are at a particularly vulnerable point because they're in a phase of rapid brain development – they're isolated, and denied educational programming, substance-abuse (and) mental-health treatment, and adults who can serve as positive role models."

Texas is in the middle of reforming its juvenile justice system, emphasizing community-based treatment over incarceration when possible. Still, the state continues to hold a greater percentage of its law-breaking youths in adult facilties than most other states. Since jails typically separate youths from adults, teens often spend months in what amounts to solitary confinement.

The use of seclusion and restraints also are still commonplace at many county-level juvenile-detention facilities despite state guidelines designed to minimize the practice.

A new study by the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition finds that not all local authorities interpret state guidelines the same way. While some facilities reserve the practice for severe infractions such as violent assaults or appropriately limit seclusion to brief "time-outs," report author Benet Magnuson, a policy attorney for the coalition, says others place youths in solitary who simply displayed disrespectful attitudes.

"There's wide variation across the state in how it's used: what kids are going into solitary, why they're in solitary, what they're doing in solitary, how long they're staying there."

Magnuson thinks politics is part of the problem: too many local authorities wanting to project a tough-on-crime stance are ignoring research showing that troubled youths can be damaged further by certain old-school practices. He wants lawmakers to provide more specific directives to local institutions.

Magnuson says the latest science confirms that traumatic experiences in childhood greatly increase the chances that teens will wind up in trouble with the law.

"Half have experienced a significant traumatic event in their past – witnessing gun violence, being a victim of physical or sexual abuse, witnessing domestic violence – and at least a third also have a diagnosed mental illness."

When the justice system fails to provide therapeutic resources, he adds, youths often are re-traumatized, which locks in behavior patterns that can threaten public safety for years to come. The coalition also released a report this week focusing on locked-up Texas girls – “Girls’ Experiences in the Texas Juvenile Justice System,” – finding that inconsistency in disciplinary methods was the chief barrier to their rehabilitation.

Three other related studies are online: “Community Solutions for Youth in Trouble,” “Growing Up Locked Down: Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons Across the United States” and “Juveniles in the Texas Adult Criminal Justice System.”



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A package to improve public safety is moving ahead in the California state Legislature - with a floor vote in the State Assembly on the first bill expected this week.

Assembly Bill 2215 puts into statute that police officers have the discretion to send people arrested for low-level offenses directly to supportive services.

Anthony DiMartino - government affairs director with the nonprofit Californians for Safety and Justice - said sometimes public safety is best served when people avoid arrest and instead get therapy, addiction support or help getting a job.

"We're also hoping to raise awareness that this is something officers can do, and then also encourage partnerships more with officers to look at what's in their community," said DiMartino, "as alternatives to jail booking."

A second bill would increase transparency and accountability on money sent to the counties as part of the Public Safety Realignment.

A third bill would require police officers, prosecuting attorneys and investigators to identify themselves any time they're interviewing a family member of someone killed or severely injured by police.

DiMartino said they also support AB 2499, which would ensure that survivors of violent crime and their family members can take unpaid time off work to address safety concerns and heal.

"We're hoping to broaden the scope a bit," said DiMartino, "and make it more clear that family members of victims are able to also tap into unpaid leave to support their family member that has been a victim."

A fifth bill would make it easier for justice-involved people and crime victims to speak freely during restorative justice programs - by making the communications inadmissible in other legal proceedings.

Missouri went through with its first execution of the year, as Brian Dorsey was put to death last night, just after 6 p.m. CT.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stop Dorsey's execution. He was convicted of murdering his cousin Sarah Bonnie and her husband Ben nearly 20 years ago.

The advocacy group Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty launched several recent campaigns on Dorsey's behalf to spare his life.

Jenni Gerhauser, a cousin to both Dorsey and Sarah Bonnie, expressed belief in his redemption.

"Brian is more than the worst moment of his life," Gerhauser stressed. "There is so much more to him."

Gerhauser fondly remembered him as fun and charming from their visits during holidays. Dorsey's current lawyers said he was in a drug-induced psychosis when he killed the Bonnies in 2006 and his attorneys at the time had been offered money, preventing them from fighting the death penalty with his guilty plea deal.

Gov. Mike Parson confirmed Monday the state would move forward with Dorsey's death sentence, rejecting a separate request for clemency. More than 70 current and former corrections officers had urged the governor to commute Dorsey's sentence, arguing he had been rehabilitated.

Claudia Boyce, also a cousin in the family, said it should not be a decision for the state to make.

"You know, that's supposed to be God's decision, not ours," Boyce contended.

Dorsey received a lethal injection Tuesday evening. Lethal injection became an option for people on Missouri's death row in 1987, alongside lethal gas.


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Amid overcrowding and unsafe conditions in West Virginia jails, state lawmakers introduced bills that would allow judges to take a 'second look' at an individual's original sentence.

If a court determines they no longer pose a threat to the community, the person could be released, placed on supervision, or receive a shortened sentence.

Sara Whitaker - criminal legal policy analyst with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy - said West Virginia is one of the few states that has seen its prison population balloon over the past decade, despite declining crime.

She noted that as of last month, more than 500 people in the state were in jail awaiting transfer to a prison.

"As a result, eight out of 10 of the regional jails in the state were beyond capacity," said Whitaker, "with hundreds of people assigned to sleeping on the floor."

The bills failed to advance this session, but Whitaker said advocates are hopeful lawmakers will consider them next year.

The state's jails remain among the deadliest in the country, with at least 91 people losing their lives while incarcerated in the past few years.

According to the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, jail bills cost counties $45 million in 2022.

Nationwide, long sentences have led to growth in the number of older people behind bars.

Whitaker pointed out that 'Second Look' legislation could help the state avoid turning its prisons into nursing homes, and said the number of elderly people in prison has tripled in the past two decades.

"In 2019, West Virginia had to open a dementia unit in one of its prisons," said Whitaker. "There are hospice units across multiple prisons. And experts predict that this is just only going to get worse."

Whitaker added that 'Second Look' policies also offer a way to correct past racial injustice in the criminal legal system.

Black people incarcerated in West Virginia are four times more likely than white people to be serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole, and five times as likely to be serving a life-without-parole sentence.




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