Children’s Act to Transform Services for At-Risk Kids: Bill 25 Touches All Aspects of Government Services for Alberta Youth, Edmonton Journal

Training the Courts [in Libya] to Protect Children’s Rights, Libya Herald

Libyan prosecutors have been finding out more about the best ways to uphold children’s rights.  The four-day training course, for 25 prosecutors, is the second stage of a scheme aimed at preparing a solid basis for building a juvenile judicial system in Libya.

The programme has been organised by the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Libyan Higher Judicial Institute and the United Nations children’s fund UNICEF . . . The project has also included a three-day consultation on drafting a Juvenile Justice Law, led and hosted by the HJI.

A recent study of Libya’s existing laws, supported by UNICEF, showed that the country already has some regulations in place dealing with child protection. The death penalty is prohibited for under-18s and the legal age for marriage is 20. Corporal punishment in schools is also forbidden, although evidence suggests that, in some institutions, this rule flouted.

According to UNICEF, work is still needed, however, to bring the country’s legal system into line with international standards and provide adequate protection for children.

Robert C. Richardson III’s attorneys also said the boy is suffering from the effects of isolation at the county jail, asking at a motions hearing for their client to be transferred to a facility for juveniles. They said he is being held in solitary confinement at the Harford County Detention Center.

Additional Information on [Florida] Department of Juvenile Justice Expanding Civil Citation Process, WearTV

Juveniles in Escambia County who commit a first time misdemeanor might be given a second chance. The Juvenile Civil Citation Expansion program will help give . . .    Juveniles with a first time misdemeanor . . . a citation and community service.

The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice says among other benefits  this will be a significant cost savings. Last year there were more than 2200 youth arrest in Escambia County. Nearly 560 of those were first time misdemeanor arrest.      Potential savings could be around 2.6 million dollars a year.  In the DJJ sits juveniles who have committed crimes and will now have felonies or misdemeanors on their records.  Some keeping them from getting jobs in the future.

The new program is targeted to help the youth and keep them from becoming repeat offenders . . .  The citation program will not be a “get out of jail free card”… Citations will be given to youth who commit first time non-violent misdemeanors community service will also follow.   Once completed the youth will leave the program with no record to follow.

Push Begins to Reform Juvenile Justice System, The Atlanta Journal Constitution

The chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court called for extensive reform to the juvenile justice system, an exhortation that served as a prelude Thursday to the introduction of sweeping legislation meant to improve the state’s treatment of its youngest offenders.

Chief Justice Carole Hunstein, as well as bill sponsor Rep. Wendell Willard and juvenile justice advocates, said too many of the wrong kids are being locked up in Georgia and the state needs to approach the problem differently. They urged state legislators to make reforms that would divert less dangerous juvenile offenders away from lockups and into community programs, as well as address the minors’ substance abuse issues, problems at home and other challenges faced on the street and at school…

Proposed Assistance Limits Will Harm Children, The Austin American Statesman

When it comes to welfare, Texans are conflicted. On one hand, Texans don’t want to subsidize babies that parents can’t afford. On the other, Texans believe in the sanctity of newborn life and the importance of nurturing children. We find it hard to turn away families struggling to feed, clothe, and shelter their kids.

We understand that children raised in poverty are deprived in ways that damage not only them but our society. We also know that sometimes a parent’s circumstances leave a family in poverty through no fault of the parent and certainly no fault of the kids…

Yemen: Halt Execution of Alleged Juvenile Offender, Human Rights Watch

On March 9, 2013, the government of Yemen executed Mohammad Abd al-karim Mohammad Haza`a for the crime of murder, despite serious concern that he may have been under 18 at the time of his crime.

Human Rights Watch strongly condemns the execution. 

Juveniles Executed in Yemen Though Law Forbids It, Digital Journal

Yemen is accused of jailing and executing people who were still children when they committed their crimes. Some of the executions are due to lack of birth certificates but others are due to failures in the justice system.

A sample case is described in an Al Jazeera report. Mariam al-Batah is one of 22 known death row juveniles in Yemen. She was sentenced to death for murder at 15. She comes from a rural illiterate background and her parents failed to register her birth. She is now 19 and has spent the years since her sentence in squalid conditions at Hodeida Central Prison.

Al-Batah’s father married her off as a second wife to an older man when she was only 12 years old. Al-Batah claims that her husband beat her, starved her, and locked her in a room for weeks at a time. One day when the child of her husband’s first wife unlocked the door where she was locked in, she recalls rushing out in a disoriented state and she violently hurled the child to the ground, killing it on the spot.

Israel Accused of Abusing Detained Children, Al Jazeera

Palestinian children detained by Israeli authorities face systematic abuse that violates international law, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has said in a report. UNICEF estimated that 700 Palestinian children aged between 12 and 17 were arrested by Israeli security forces every year in the occupied West Bank.

The world organisation said it had identified some examples of practices that “amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against Torture” . . .

“The pattern of ill-treatment includes … the practice of blindfolding children and tying their hands with plastic ties, physical and verbal abuse during transfer to an interrogation site, including the use of painful restraints,” the report said.  It said minors suffered physical violence and threats during their interrogation, were coerced into confession and not given immediate access to a lawyer or family during questioning.

Number of detained teens at 35-year low, study finds, Philadelphia Inquirer

The number of teenagers being held in detention centers and other facilities across the country is at its lowest level in 35 years, a finding that suggests a national shift on how to treat young offenders, juvenile justice advocates say . . .

James Anderson, executive director of the state Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission . . . said that from 2008 through 2011, Pennsylvania’s court-ordered placements of juveniles into detention centers and other delinquency programs has decreased by more than 25 percent.

Surrogate Crystal Kelley offered $10k to abort, fled across US to give birth to ‘Baby S’, CNN

[Crystal] Kelley had agreed to be a surrogate and was being paid $2,222 a month by the parents for her trouble. But an ultrasound scan of the fetus showed serious abnormalities. Fearing that the child would never lead a normal life — whatever that may be — the parents asked Kelley to abort.

Although the surrogacy agreement contained a clause to this effect, Kelley refused . . . The parents offered Kelly an extra $10,000 to terminate the pregnancy. Although she said she was against abortion for religious and moral reasons, Kelley eventually thought she might be able to quash those ethical qualms if the parents paid her $15,000 — $5,000 apparently being the difference between “against” and “fine with it.” The parents refused, and Kelley says she regretted the offer . . . Kelley decided to have the child, who was born severely disabled and lives with adoptive parents in the Midwest . . .

A woman’s right to choose is, of course, the founding principle of the pro-choice movement and its valiant campaign to keep abortion safe and legal — no matter, for now, that the legality of abortion mostly rests on physician-patient privacy . . .

Clayton juvenile program becomes model for state reform, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Quantavius Poole was a school brawler, a drug dealer, and he was facing five years in juvenile detention.

Now, at 17, he is a sous chef for a caterer. He hopes to enlist in the National Guard so he can pay his way through a military college. He wants to enter the Air Force.

The program that may have saved Poole, called Second Chance, is a blueprint for legislation to overhaul Georgia’s juvenile justice system. It’s credited with steeply reducing juvenile offenses in Clayton County, and its supporters believe a statewide program could save Georgia hundreds of thousands of dollars per offender.

Virginia pastor sentenced for aiding parental kidnapping, The New York Times

A Virginia pastor who said that his actions “flow out of my faith in Jesus,” was sentenced Monday to 27 months in prison for abetting the international parental kidnapping of a girl in a high-profile case involving a same-sex union and the condemnation of homosexuality by conservative Christians.

Population at youth corrections facility drops, The Denver Post

State officials say a focus on rehabilitation has led to a 44 percent decrease in the number of juveniles committed to the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections over the past seven years.

John Gomez, director of youth corrections, tells The Denver Post Colorado will remove 189 beds from seven state-run and community based facilities during the next year. He says his office has successfully combined programs designed to help adolescents before they enter the justice system and has tried to stop released juveniles from returning.

Early-intervention programs have helped expand services to children and teens before they enter the justice system, reducing the number of juvenile arrests in Colorado.

With fewer detained juveniles, the Department of Human Services has asked lawmakers to move nearly $8 million from youth corrections to child welfare services.

Cornell law professors and students work for juvenile justice, The Cornell Daily Sun

On behalf of 37 juveniles in South Carolina who have been sentenced to life in prison without parole, Cornell law students and professors are working to abolish sentences that may constitute “cruel and unusual punishment,” according to Prof. John Blume, law.

In August, Blume and Keir Weyble, an adjunct professor of law, founded the Cornell Juvenile Justice Clinic, a clinic that assists juvenile defendants facing life sentences, because, according to them, juvenile sentences of life without parole should be deemed unconstitutional.

Even after the U.S. Supreme Court case of Miller v. Alabama, which upheld the ruling that sentencing juveniles to life without parole is unconstitutional, juvenile offenders in South Carolina still serve life without parole sentences, according to Blume.

Wyoming Juvenile Killer Law Not Retroactive, Casper Star Tribune

A new Wyoming law that ends mandatory life imprisonment for juvenile killers won’t change the sentences of eight people already serving life for crimes they committed before the age of 18.

The law, which Gov. Matt Mead signed two weeks ago, gives juveniles with life sentences a chance at parole after serving 25 years. They would also be eligible for parole based on a governor’s commutation.

The Legislature did not write the law to apply retroactively. So when it goes into effect July 1, it won’t affect people already serving life for crimes they committed as juveniles, said Deputy Attorney General Dave Delicath.

State Cuts Number of Children in Juvenile Jail: Report Says Alternative Programs Are Effective, Cost-Efficient, Hartford Courant

Once a state that poured tens of millions of dollars into its juvenile prison, Connecticut is now locking up far fewer children and beefing up community programs – with no uptick in serious, violent juvenile crime, a justice-system reform group reported today.

The state Department of Children and Families has shifted money from locked-residential facilities to neighborhood programs and foster care, and is getting a better return on taxpayer dollars as a result, the Justice Policy Institute reported.

Advocates in Connecticut said while there’s still plenty of work to do – particularly concerning differences in the way the system handles black children and white children – this shift away from detention centers and locked wards represents major reform.

One year in the $57 million Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown costs about $350,000 per child, far more than a year in foster care or in a treatment program that diverts kids from juvenile court.

Justice-system and child-welfare officials acknowledge that the focus on alternative programs has raised the threshold for locking up juvenile offenders in Connecticut. For example, there is more tolerance than there used to be for technical violations of probation and parole, such as curfew infractions, truancy, problems in school, and failed drug tests. But the officials say that in the long run, treatment programs still produce better outcomes than prison for young offenders.

Maldives Girl Faces Flogging After Alleged Rape, Huffington Post

A 15-year-old in the Maldives whose father is accused of repeatedly raping her and killing the resulting baby risks being flogged for “fornication” with another man under the nation’s strict Islamic law, a police source said Monday.

In the course of inquiries into the rape case, investigators say they unearthed evidence of the girl having had consensual sex with another man, which is an offence in the Indian Ocean holiday destination, the source told AFP.

Women, including minors, having consensual sex outside marriage can be charged in the Maldives, where convicts can be publicly flogged. Minors receive the punishment when they reach 18, the age of majority.

The child’s step-father is accused by police of repeatedly raping the girl and fathering a child by her which he subsequently murdered. The girl’s mother has been charged with helping dispose of the infant’s body, police said.

Poor state of juvenile justice in Assam, Zee News

Assam has reported the highest number of cases of juvenile delinquency in the Northeast consistently for the last few years, according to a human rights watch group.

The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) in its latest study report claimed that the state had recorded 405 such cases in 2011. The report noted that the administration of juvenile justice in Assam remained equally deplorable.

Illinois Senate to vote on same-sex marriage bill on Valentine’s Day, CNN

The Illinois Senate will vote Thursday — Valentine’s Day — on whether to legalize same-sex marriage.

Because Democrats have supermajority control of the General Assembly, the measure is expected to be approved. After the Senate vote, the measure would be considered by the House. If it is approved, Illinois would be the 10th state, plus the District of Columbia, to legalize same-sex marriage.

Ohio school’s officials to decide response to federal lawsuit challenging Jesus portrait, Fox News

A southern Ohio school board plans to decide Tuesday evening how to respond to a federal lawsuit seeking removal of a portrait of Jesus that has hung in its middle school for decades after being donated by a student group.

The lawsuit filed last week in U.S. district court on behalf on an unidentified student and two parents claims the large, prominently displayed portrait in the Jackson Middle School unconstitutionally promotes religion.

The Jackson City Schools board will hear from attorneys who have been looking into the issue for the district. Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for the Liberty Institute, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of public religious displays, said attorneys will present their findings and recommendations. He called the lawsuit “premature,” and school officials agreed.

Indian Supreme Court to review blanket protection for juveniles, Mail Online India

The Supreme Court has decided to look into the Constitutional validity of the juvenile justice law which provides blanket protection to all offenders up to the age of 18 irrespective of their mental maturity level.

In the petition before the court, the lawyers have contended that it was irrational to put all juveniles up to 18 on the same footing without considering the nature and gravity of the offence, actual age and mental maturity level of juvenile offender, socio-economic background of the juvenile, nature and character of the juvenile and the rights of the victim.

The petitioners have also questioned the law on the grounds that it had completely taken away judicial discretion in offences committed by juveniles. They have pointed out that the Indian Penal Code (IPC) provided some discretion in this regard to judges, but there was no similar provision in the juvenile justice law.

Getting dropouts back in school, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In a 2006 study, Rand Corp. estimated that 35 percent of Pittsburgh students drop out of high school. That rate climbs alarmingly to over 50 percent for black males.

We often see young people in the throes of teen angst making decisions they could end up regretting for a lifetime. These are the children that the Hill House Passport Academy, a charter drop-out recovery school planned for the Hill District, wants to help. A blended-learning school that combines traditional classroom work with online curriculum, it is modeled after a very successful school in Chicago that boasts a 95 percent graduation rate.

The Hill House Association now awaits a decision from the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education, the body that approves charter schools in Pittsburgh. In emotional testimony before the board, 20-year-old Ruben Franklin summed up his thoughts about the school. “It’s the second chance that everyone wants and that young people deserve.”

Fairfax youths subject of porn investigation, The Washington Post

Fairfax County police are continuing to investigate allegations that three West Springfield High School students filmed themselves engaged in drunken sex acts with at least six juvenile girls.

The three boys – two 16-year-olds and a 15-year-old – were arrested at school Jan. 11, according to police and school officials. They have been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

The boys, whom police have not identified publicly because they are juveniles, allegedly hosted parties with girls who were students at West Springfield, Robinson Secondary and Lake Braddock Secondary schools, said a Fairfax County school official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the investigation. The teenagers apparently took part in consensual drinking sessions and then engaged in consensual sex acts, the official said, adding that the sex acts were recorded surreptitiously.

Amended juvenile justice law hits snag, BusinessMirror

In the Philippines, the bill amending the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 hit a snag at the bicameral conference committee on Monday when senators failed to reach an agreement with their House counterparts on lowering the age of discernment to 12 years old but only for heinous crimes as proposed by the latter.

Apparently, Cayetano and Pangilinan sided with the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and insisted that the age of discernment be at 15 years old regardless of the crime committed.

Harsher law for juvenile criminals needs debate, Hindustan Times

The Indian government on Monday defended its decision to come out with an ordinance on sexual assault, saying it has an open mind to other suggestions that might follow. “The ordinance is the first step in the making of law,” said Information and Broadcasting Minister Manoj Tewari at a press conference.

Chidambaram said the government was working on suggestions to have a more stringent Juvenile Justice Act–the law which governs how minors are treated under the law–but made it clear that it cannot be applied retrospectively.

“That’s the law,” he said. “The Juvenile Justice Act is a separate law. Whether the age should be reduced, whether it should reduced for certain kinds of offences, what you call heinous offences, is a matter that has to be considered very carefully and within the permissible limits of the Constitution,” said Chidambaram. The ordinance will not be applicable to the December 16 Delhi gangrape case but its provisions on procedural law will help in “quicker completion of the trial”.

A Delhi court on Saturday framed charges of murder, gang-rape, kidnapping and on 10 other counts against five accused involved in the Dec 16 rape of a 23-year-old woman. Of the sex persons accused in the case, one has been declared a minor and will be tried by the Juvenile Justice Board. The juvenile, allegedly the most brutal of the rapits, cannot be given the death penalty and will probably get a prison sentence of no more than three years.

For more information and opinions on this issue, see the Times of India, the Washington Post, and Outlook.

Bill would aid rape victims, The Cincinnati Enquirer

A state representative wants to make sure that women who become mothers as the result of a rape don’t have to share custody with their rapists.

Rep. Dennis Keene, D-Wilder, plans to file a bill Tuesday in the General Assembly that will make sure that anyone convicted of first degree rape in which a child was conceived will not have parental or visitation rights. As the law stands, Keene said, a convicted rapist could take his victim to court seeking parental rights to a child.

Teen Shooter Targeted Two Classmates He Believed Bullied Him at Taft Union High School in CA, NY Daily News

A student who believed he was the victim of bullying opened fire with a shotgun in a central California high school on Thursday, critically wounding one student and narrowly missing another before being talked down by a “heroic” teacher, law enforcement said.  The teacher suffered a pellet to the head and is expected to recover, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said during a news conference. At least two other students were lightly hurt in the panic after shots erupted around 9:30 a.m. inside Taft Union High School, in Taft, Calif., about 40 miles south of Bakersfield.

Youngblood told reporters that he could not confirm whether the suspect had indeed been bullied at the school.

Phoenix Group Targets Graffiti Laws, The Arizona Republic

As Arizona cities, lobbyists, unions and activist groups firm up their legislative goals for 2013, a group of Phoenix residents is looking for a little help with graffiti.

Phoenix’s Anti-Graffiti Task Force hopes the Legislature, which convenes Monday, will consider a proposal that includes additional penalties for offenders and new requirements for stores that sell graffiti materials.

Vatican Criticizes Court Ruling on Gays’ Children, The Seattle Times

The Vatican is pressing its opposition to gay marriage, insisting Saturday that children should grow up with a father and a mother after Italy’s high court upheld a lower court ruling and granted custody of a child to his gay mother.

In its decision Friday, the Court of Cassation said there was no “scientific certainty or experience-based data” to support the father’s claims that the child’s development was being damaged by living with his mother and her female partner. Such an argument was “mere prejudice,” the court said.