Tonight (January 13) the A&E Network begins it’s broadcasting of a seven-part series titled “Beyond Scared Straight” – supposedly a look inside “new” Scared Straight programs – but, at least based on their initial promotional videos looks an awful lot like the old Scared Straight.  The producer of the series apparently does not trust...

In his recently released state budget proposal, Governor Jerry Brown has proposed eliminating the state’s juvenile correctional institutions, instead reserving state capacity only for the most serious and violent felony youth and transferring funds and responsibility for less serious offenders to the local level.  This is at least one...

While the efforts of advocates and justice professionals to promote community-based programs for offenders often fell to the conservative mantra of being “tough on crime”, apparently some conservatives have finally felt the sting of the high costs of incarceration in their pocketbook – to the point of suggesting that the drive to build...

On yesterday, Wednesday, January 5, 2011, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin heard oral arguments on whether sentencing an individual to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a crime committed at the age of 14 violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. You can view/listen to a recording...

All too often, the gap between what research tells us what works with youthful offenders and what actual practice is seems too hard to close.  Evidence based programs, while useful, are often viewed as too costly or too limited to significantly alter the course of a jurisdiction’s practice.  And evidence-based practices, less rigorously...