Ashley Nellis - A Return to Justice: Rethinking our Approach to Juveniles in the System

A Return to Justice

A Return to Justice

Rethinking Our Approach to Juveniles in the System

Ashley Nellis

Rowman & Littlefield

Lanham Boulder New York London

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Copyright 2016 by Rowman & Littlefield

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nellis, Ashley, author.

A return to justice: rethinking our approach to juveniles in the system/Ashley Nellis.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-2766-8 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4422-2767-5 (electronic) 1. Juvenile justice, Administration ofUnited States. 2. Juvenile delinquencyUnited States. 3. Juvenile correctionsUnited States. I. Title.

HV9104.N35 2016

364.360973dc23 2015023175

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

In memory of Jerome Miller 19312015

Contents

This book would not have been possible without the historical wisdom of scholars and advocates who have devoted their lifes work to bringing youth justice closer to its original vision. I am grateful to Paolo Annino, Shay Bilchik, Bart Lubow, Liz Ryan, and Mark Soler for sharing their perspectives as well as providing historical materials that greatly assisted with my research. A juvenile justice system suitable for children is within reach because of the perseverance of todays youth advocates who have worked to end policies and practices that put youth, particularly youth of color, in harms way.

I am grateful for the patience and encouragement of my colleagues at The Sentencing Project. One could not ask for a more supportive environment in which to research and write. I am fortunate to have Marc Mauer as a mentor and friend.

My work is inspired by the children and families whose lives have been touched by the justice system.

Ralph Brazel Jr. was raised in low-income neighborhoods in New Jersey by a loving mother who divorced when he and his brother were young. As a teen, he chafed at her restrictions, skipping school and getting into trouble. Against his mothers wishes, he moved to St. Petersburg, first living with his father, who struggled with addiction problems, then with his grandmother. Before long, Brazel got caught up in selling drugs. I didnt make a lot of moneynever saw a thousand dollars of my ownbut I was living every day like it was a Fridaygoing to the beach, go-cart racing, riding in the 72 Cadillac Sedan DeVille given to me by my uncle, he recalls.

At seventeen, Brazel was caught with eighteen grams of crack cocaine. He pled guilty and the state of Florida sentenced him, as a juvenile, to twenty months in state prison for two counts of conspiracy to distribute and manufacture the drug. While he was waiting to go to state prison, the federal government apprehended him for a new drug offense. The earlier charges now became two prior convictionsalong with a new sentence in the federal system.

For a nonviolent offense committed as a juvenile, Brazel was sentenced by a federal judge to three life sentencesa lifetime in prison with no possibility of parole. Some 2,500 others are in similar situations in the United States, the only nation in the world that sentences juveniles to life in prison without parole.

In August 2013, days before his fortieth birthday, after having served twenty-two years in prison, Brazel became a free man, thanks in part to a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down such life sentences for nonhomicide cases. Today he is slowly building his life back.

Ralph Brazels story is a symbol of the extremes of crime policy that dominated the 1990s in a frenzied political response to address violent crime, much of which was attributed to young black males. Though the impact of these policies on adults and their communities has received much attention, Brazels story reminds us that children were affected toofrom the thousands of youth funneled directly into the adult criminal justice system through legislative changes, to the 2.2 million individuals today who have a parent in prison.

In the minds of most Americans, juvenile crime is a serious problem, and policy makers have historically responded by enacting ever-harsher penalties that incarcerate increasing numbers of young offenders. Harmful youth policies enacted in the 1980s and 1990s in particular set juvenile justice policy and practice back in time, removing the long-standing appreciation of young age as a principal factor in limiting culpability from the courts deliberation and sentencing process.

Many of these youth policies are still in place. At the same time, substantial reforms during the past fifteen years have produced a steady and substantial decline in the number of youth who encounter the juvenile justice system. States are saving millions of dollars annually through redirecting thousands of young people from institutions to treatment in their communities, where they are more appropriately and effectively served. Time and financial investment have been devoted to researching what works to improve youth outcomes. And perhaps most important, substantial system reforms have accompanied the expansion of options for offending and at-risk youth. There is now general agreement that so long as outdated policies and practices are in place that have been demonstrated to harm children and fail to produce public safety results, lasting change remains out of reach. With this in mind, various jurisdictions around the country have overhauled their juvenile justice systems and replaced them with a renewed vision for juvenile justice that operates from the inside out.

The system, now more than a century old, has fluctuated significantly in its philosophies and practices about wayward youth. At times it has tried to serve as a compassionate and caring system with a duty to redirect errant youth and provide the support and services lacking in their homes and communities. At other times, the system essentially replicated the congregate care approach apparent in adult prisons and jails, serving as little more than a warehouse for criminal and other unwanted youth. Legal attention to the gaps in procedural protections afforded to youth resulted in substantial improvements to the system during the 1960s and 1970s. Yet in the latter part of the twentieth century, as juvenile crime experienced a troubling rise, the juvenile justice system suffered from accusations of being too soft on crime; in response, it re-created itself as one that would make kids accountable through punishment and deterrence. And in recent years, the juvenile justice system reversed course again, recommitting to its initial purpose by incorporating critical developments in science and medicine that confirm what many parents already know: kids are different.

A main objective for this book is to offer an account of the reforms under way within the juvenile justice field while identifying the remaining areas for attention given current political, social, and economic factors at play. Though reforms are challenged within divisive legislatures, much progress has still been made.