Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Video 1: Young Kids, Hard Time 
Description: The YIA cellblock is home to 53 kids who are rarely permitted to leave the unit, due to their dangers posed by the adult prisoners just outside their door. But once a youth offender turns 18, they begin the immediate transition into the general prison population, where thousands of adult prisoners await. 

Video 2: The Dropout Dilemma
Description: Video detailing the issues with high school dropouts and the many ways dropping out impacts the lives of children and the community.  

Audio 1: Whistleblowers Say DOJ Grants Failed to Protect Kids Behind Bars
Description: The Juvenile Justice Delinquency and Prevention Act allocates grant money to states, which are supposed to protect young offenders and make sure they’re not housed with adult criminals. Whistleblowers say they’ve spent years flagging problems with the programs. National Public Radio report.

Web 1: Facing the School Dropout Dilemma
Description: The American Psychological Association report on school dropout prevention. 

Web 2: Raising the Bar: State Trends in Keeping Youth Out of Adult Courts (2015–2017)
Description: This report from the Campaign for Youth Justice is the fourth edition of their State Trends Report, which examines states that have worked to end the practice of automatically sending children into the adult criminal justice system. Since 2005, 36 states and Washington, DC, have passed 70 pieces of legislation to keep youth out of the adult criminal justice system. Highlights include an examination of the number of youth under the age of 18 automatically excluded from juvenile court, which has been nearly cut in half from 175,000 youth in 2007 to 90,900 youth in 2014. The number is expected to drop again in 2020 when Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, and New York fully implement the laws passed in 2016 and 2017.

Web 3: Unlocking Youth: Legal Strategies to End Solitary Confinement in Juvenile Facilities 
Description: Despite a growing consensus that solitary confinement harms youth and undermines the rehabilitative goals of the juvenile justice system, the practice remains all too common. At the same time, the field lacks sufficient information on the prevalence of the practice, the alternatives, and the perspectives of affected youth and families. This Juvenile Law Center report uses surveys of public defenders, conversations with youth and families, interviews with correctional administrators, and legal and psychological research to fill these gaps and set forth recommendations for reform.