Taser Used on Youth at Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center, WJTV

A year after a settlement agreement was reached to address abusive conditions at the Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center, an independent court monitor has found that a Taser was used on a youth at the facility on Christmas and that the detention center has shown little progress meeting the conditions of the agreement.

The monitor’s third quarterly report, filed in the U.S District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, describes a number of other failures, including inadequate staffing, training and programming at the facility. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is urging the facility to make immediate and significant changes to protect the children at Henley-Young from further harm.

“It is outrageous that after reaching a settlement agreement that the staff at Henley-Young feels it is appropriate to allow  deputies into the facility to use a Taser on a youth,” said Corrie Cockrell, SPLC staff attorney. “This incident is a symptom of a facility with a dangerous disregard for the safety of the children in its care.”

Book on Child-Related Laws for Police Launched, Business Recorder

A book launching ceremony held in the Police Training Collage Hangu on Child related laws for police officers/trainees. At the occasion Rahim Hussein CLI PTC, Hangu, while presenting the contents of laws, said that the book contains Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa JJSO Rules 2002, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act 2010, Probation of Offenders Ordinance 1960 and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Borstal Institutions Act 2012.

He said that with collaboration of SPARC, PTC Hangu published 1,000 books, which is now included in the syllabus and will be taught in Local Special Laws. Akbar Ali Shah Programme Manager Juvenile Justice SPARC thanked PTC, Hangu, especially Abdul Waheed Khan Commandant PTC, Hangu for their efforts in making all the way possible for the publication of this book, while addressing to the participants he shared massage of Ms Zarina Jillani Executive Director SPARC as follows;

The importance of effective training of Police is essential to provide and protect human rights in every society. In the case of children it becomes even more crucial considering that both national and international laws require special consideration, care and protection when dealing with them.

Monitor Files Report on Hinds Juvenile Lockup, SunHerald.com

A court monitor says the Hinds County juvenile detention center violated a provision in a lawsuit settlement when a stun gun was used on a youth Christmas Day.

The Southern Poverty Law Center sued the Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center in 2011. SPLC alleged that children were being denied mental health services and subjected to verbal abuse and threats by staff.

The lawsuit resulted in the settlement agreement, which included an expert, Leonard Dixon, monitoring the facility.

Dixon said in a report dated April 12 that there was no need for a Hinds County deputy to enter the facility and use a stun gun on an unruly inmate.

Teen Court Gives Wayward Youth a Jury of their Peers, Spirit of Jefferson

Imagine making a poor decision that could change the course of your life. Now imagine having a second chance to correct your mistake and learning how to be a productive citizen.

The Jefferson County Teen Court program in partnership with the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle is a community-based intervention/prevention program designed to provide an alternative response for the juvenile justice system for first-time, nonviolent juvenile offenders by having a community young people determine the appropriate sanctions for the offender.

The program is a legally binding alternative system of justice that will hold youthful offenders accountable in an effort to promote long-term behavioral change that leads to enhanced public safety. The program is designed for youth in the 7th through 12th grades and between ages 11 and 18. Juvenile offenders are referred to teen court by the Jefferson County juvenile prosecuting attorney’s office. Both the juvenile offender and his parent must agree to the terms of Jefferson County Teen Court.

Judge:  Teen to Stand Trial as Juvenile in Murder Case, The Advocate

A Juvenile Court judge ruled Monday that a 15-year-old Baton Rouge boy charged with murder in a deadly home invasion last year should stand trial as a juvenile, denying a request by prosecutors that he be tried as an adult.

After two days of testimony, Judge Pamela Taylor Johnson found Darien Bailey has “borderline” intelligence and the mind of about a 10-year-old, though he was 14 when he was arrested in the Nov. 6 fatal shooting of Derrick Marioneaux.

Bailey has better chances of being rehabilitated through Office of Juvenile Justice services than if he were to become a “victim” among the older adult prison population, Johnson determined.

10 Places that can Change your Child’s Life, CNN

She’s looking over the boat’s edge to spot a dolphin and record its markings. He’s digging for medieval tools in the fields around an abandoned friary. Or they’re simply hearing their native language spoken a bit differently in a different country, where the food doesn’t quite taste the same.

Travel can introduce kids to the world’s real-life wonders, changing their perspective on topics they may have only read about in books.

It can literally change their lives.

“There is a kid’s way of seeing the world,” says Keith Bellows, editor-in-chief of National Geographic Traveler magazine and author of National Geographic’s “100 Places That Can Change Your Child’s Life.” “As an adult, get out of the way, and stop marching them through an experience. When you get them to slow down and experience a place from their perspective, it’s magic. Not just the place itself, but the experience.”

Texas Investigator found 30+ Bruises, Cuts on Dead Boy Adopted from Russia, CNN

A 3-year-old adopted boy — whose death in West Texas has drawn stern criticism from Russia — had more than 30 bruises, cuts and other marks on his body soon after he was pronounced dead, according to a report from a Texas medical examiner obtained by CNN.

Along with his 2-year-old brother, Max Shatto arrived in the United States with his adoptive parents in November 2011. Just more than two months later, his adoptive mother told authorities that she found him unresponsive in the family’s Gardendale, Texas, backyard. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital.

Soon after Max’s death on January 21, Russia’s top child rights advocate tweeted that the boy had been “killed” or “murdered.” Children’s Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov later acknowledged he might have spoken too soon — though he has remained highly critical of the U.S. handling of the case.

A High School where the Students are the Teachers, Time

If high school students took charge of their education with limited supervision, would they learn? A Massachusetts school is finding out.

“Some kids say, I hate science or I hate math, but what they are really saying is: I hate science class or I hate math class,” says high school senior Matt Whalan.

Whalan is writing a novel. That’s a notable feat for a 17-year-old, and he has a semester to finish it. Whalan is enrolled in the Monument Mountain Regional High School’s Independent Project, an alternative program described as a “school within a school,” founded and run by students. The semester-long program is in its third year, and Whalan has completed the program three times during his high school career and says it has saved his grades.

Torrington Holding Public Meeting on Cyberbullying, NorthJersey.com

The arrests of three high school students on sexual assault charges and the online taunting of an accuser have prompted Torrington officials to organize a community meeting on cyberbullying, statutory rape and social media.

Board of Education Chairman Kenneth Traub said Monday that school officials, local police and religious leaders are organizing a community forum they expect to hold in the first two weeks of April. He said additional public meetings are possible.

“I imagine that the public input section of it would be overwhelming,” Traub told the Register Citizen newspaper of Torrington. “We are working with the city and the police department to put on a forum to discuss the issues at hand.”

When Bullying Goes High-Tech, CNN

Brandon Turley didn’t have friends in sixth grade. He would often eat alone at lunch, having recently switched to his school without knowing anyone.

While browsing MySpace one day, he saw that someone from school had posted a bulletin — a message visible to multiple people — declaring that Turley was a “fag.” Students he had never even spoken with wrote on it, too, saying they agreed.

Feeling confused and upset, Turley wrote in the comments, too, asking why his classmates would say that. The response was even worse: He was told on MySpace that a group of 12 kids wanted to beat him up, that he should stop going to school and die. On his walk from his locker to the school office to report what was happening, students yelled things like “fag” and “fatty.”

“It was just crazy, and such a shock to my self-esteem that people didn’t like me without even knowing me,” said Turley, now 18 and a senior in high school in Oregon. “I didn’t understand how that could be.”

Centre Debunks Theory of Reducing Age of Juveniles under Juvenile Justice Act, Jagran Post

Supreme Court says Overseas Custody Fight can Continue, CNN

The Supreme Court gave unanimous support to an American father’s court fight to regain custody of his daughter living overseas, saying the case is still active even if the child is out of the country.

This decision could establish important precedent on the discretion of U.S. courts to decide where youngsters caught in parental fights should stay. It also addresses a key question at the intersection of American and international law.

“This dispute is very much alive,” the justices said in their ruling.

The jurisdictional matter before the high court involved a U.S. Army sergeant from Alabama and his Scottish-born wife, who returned alone to her home country with their daughter, Eris.

Panel Endorses Overhaul of Georgia’s Juvenile Justice System, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A massive bill that would turn everything upside down in Georgia’s juvenile justice system passed its first legislative hurdle Tuesday: a committee vote.

The 244-page bill would cut the number of child offenders housed in detention centers and create community-based programs to address the problems that led the youngster to crime. It’s also expected to save the state tens of millions of dollars per year.

The legislation is a reversal of an approach to get tough on “young thugs” — as Gov. Zell Miller called them — that began in the 1990s, a period when laws were adopted with significant time for all criminals, no matter their ages.

“The way we’re doing things now is not good for the children, so we’re altering those programs,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs. “It can’t be done overnight, but there will be steps taken incrementally.”

After Texas Boy’s Death, Russian Official Continues Call for Ban on Adoptions, CNN

A Russian government child advocate said Wednesday he may have spoken too soon when he said a 3-year-old adopted boy who died in Texas was “killed” or “murdered.”

At a press conference Wednesday, Children’s Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov said he tweeted those words based on the initial reports he received about the death. With the investigation still going, he’s now simply saying the boy “died.”

Still he said, he wants his country to ban all international adoptions of Russian children.

Astakhov’s statement echoes others who have blasted the United States recently, and it continues an ongoing adoption battle between the once-Cold War foes.

Judge Opens Door for Michigan Juvenile Lifers, ABC News

All Michigan inmates serving no-parole sentences for murder committed as juveniles are entitled to a chance at release, a judge said Wednesday, declaring that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision applies retroactively.

The decision by U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara trumps a ruling last fall by the state appeals court, which said most people already behind bars wouldn’t benefit.

At issue in Michigan is how to follow a 2012 Supreme Court decision that struck down mandatory no-parole sentences for those who were under 18 when they committed crimes, mostly murder. The court said it’s cruel and unusual punishment. The state has more than 350 prisoners in that category.

Texas Media Won’t Say it, but Rick Perry’s Veto of Texting while Driving Ban Likely Saved Lives, Grits for Breakfast

Why might texting bans increase accidents? IIHS suggested that drivers, particularly young people, may be “moving their phones down and out of sight when they texted, in recognition that what they were doing was illegal. This could exacerbate the risk of texting by taking drivers’ eyes further from the road and for a longer time.” Indeed, “Using a driving simulator, researchers at the University of Glasgow found a sharp decrease in crash likelihood when participants switched from head-down to head-up displays. This suggests that it might be more hazardous for a driver to text from a device that’s hidden from view on the lap or vehicle seat.”

Bottom line: Texting bans have simply not had the desired effect. “Survey results indicate that many drivers, especially younger ones, shrug off these bans. Among 18-24 year-olds, the group most likely to text, 45 percent reported doing so anyway in states that bar all drivers from texting. This is just shy of the 48 percent of drivers who reported texting in states without bans.”

Teen Who Performed at Obama Inaugural Events Shot Dead in Chicago, CNN

A teen who performed at events around President Barack Obama’s inaugurationwas shot to death in Chicago this week, and now her story has become part of the debate in Washington over gun violence nationwide.

The shooting death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton came up in a U.S. Senate hearing and a White House press briefing Wednesday.

“She was an honor student and a majorette,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. Performing at inaugural events last week “was the highlight of her young, 15-year-old life,” he said.

Speaking at Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence, Durbin mentioned Pendleton’s death as he argued that more must be done to stop gun crimes.

Parents:  Bronx Boy Handcuffed over $5 Theft, CNN

The family of a 7-year-old Bronx boy is suing the city of New York and its police force for $250 million, claiming the child was falsely arrested and handcuffed over a $5 theft.

After being accused of stealing the money from a fellow student in November, the parents say, the boy was taken out of his third-grade class in the Bronx and detained by authorities.

The family filed the suit last week, but the incident came into the spotlight early Wednesday in New York when the boy’s mother released a photo of the boy being handcuffed.

The court filing says the child was handcuffed by police, held for 10 hours and charged with two counts of robbery that were later dropped.

But the New York Police Department disputes those allegations, saying the claims are exaggerated.

Indiana Can’t Kick Sex Offenders off Social Media, Court Says, CNN

Indiana can’t kick all registered sex offenders off instant messaging services, chat rooms or social networking sites like Facebook, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The state passed a law in 2008 that was aimed at keeping predators from trolling the Internet for new victims. But that law “broadly prohibits substantial protected speech rather than specifically targeting the evil of improper communications to minors,” a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded.

State courts can impose limits on social media as a condition of a sex offender’s probation or parole, but a “blanket ban” on Internet use violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of free expression, the judges found.

A district judge in Indianapolis had upheld the law in June, but federal courts in at least two other states — Nebraska and Louisiana — struck down similar state laws in 2012.

There’s More to Baltimore than Prisons, The Baltimore Sun

I once sat with a group of inner-city Baltimore kids, mostly 12-year-olds, who were being asked what they wanted to be when they grew up.

Police officer. Prison guard. Judge.

Those were the boys at least. The girls mostly seemed to aspire to cosmetology, which was depressing in its own way.

There’s nothing wrong, of course, with being a cop or corrections officer or a judge. But the fact that no other jobs came to mind reflected how very narrow was their world: You were either the guy getting arrested, tried and jailed, or the guy doing the arresting, trying and jailing.

CASA Volunteers Read to Help Kids, The Cincinnati Enquirer

Kayla Hickman of Amelia said she is looking forward to “helping kids and families” as a court-appointed special advocate for children in the CASA for Clermont Kids program.

Hickman and five other volunteers who completed 40 hours of special training were sworn in Jan. 17.

Amada List, executive director of CASA, said the volunteers completed the training to prepare them to be advocates in court for abused, neglected and dependent children.

“By using well-trained volunteers, juvenile court saves the cost of appointing attorneys to serve as guardians for the children,” List said.

In 2012, CASA for Clermont Kids served 222 children, List said.

New Mexico Teen Accused of Gunning Down Family ‘Lost Sense of Conscience”, CNN

The chilling acts the 15-year-old boy is accused of defy imagination:

Pumping his mother, brother and two younger sisters with bullets.

Gunning down his dad when he returned home.

Texting a picture of his lifeless mother to his 12-year-old girlfriend.

Plotting to kill strangers outside a supermarket.

But, family members say, Nehemiah Griego is no monster. They can’t fathom what could have gone so terribly wrong.

“Whether it was a mental breakdown or some deeper undiagnosed psychological issue, we can’t be sure yet,” his uncle, former New Mexico state Sen. Eric Griego, said.

Juvenile Justice:  Changes Made in Laws Affecting Youths, Midland Daily News

It’s been years in the making, but now some big changes have been made to laws pertaining to juveniles in court.

“The predominant push is the idea that we need to have laws that are geared to juveniles,” Midland County Probate Judge Dorene S. Allen said. “Not use adult laws for juveniles.”

The changes wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication and years of hard work of many, including Allen, her fellow judges on the Michigan Probate Judges Association and legislators who took the time to understand why the changes are important.

Girl Recovering After Abduction by Woman Posing as her Mom, CNN

Philadelphia police are still searching for the woman who they say abducted a 5-year-old girl from her elementary school on Monday by posing as the girl’s mother, dressed in a Muslim-style head covering.

The suspect, who police say may be pregnant and may go by the name “Rashida,” took the girl to a nearby house where a male suspect waited.

Once inside the home, authorities say, the girl was told to remove her clothing and was given a black T-shirt to wear. She was blindfolded and forced to hide under a bed, they said. She was fed at some point.

“This was an egregious crime, and the community should be outraged,” Capt. John Darby, commanding officer of special victims, said at a news conference Wednesday. “This was not a random act as far as we’re concerned.”

A man on his way to work early Tuesday found the girl wearing only the black T-shirt and crying under a slide at a playground, police said. She has since returned home with her mother, and there are “no overt” signs of injury, Darby said.

NRA Sparks Debate with Release of 3D Shooter Game for Ages 4 and Up, Fox News

Gun owners are defending a controversial 3D shooter app released by the National Rifle Association that allows players to work on simulated target practice by firing at coffin-shaped targets.

The game, NRA: Practice Range, has come under sharp criticism for its poor timing and the NRA’s apparent hypocrisy regarding virtual violence, but Eric Pratt, director of communications for Gun Owners of America contends the title has educational virtues.

“What a kid would see with this is no different than what a kid would see if his mom or dad took him to the shooting range,” Pratt told Fox News.

“They should be teaching gun safety and gun education in schools,” he later added. “Even with an app like this to help people learn how to shoot straight because when they grow up and become adults, they’re going to have to protect their homes.”

Report:  Miss. School Discipline Too Hard on Kids, The Houston Chronicle

Civil rights advocates say harsh disciplinary practices at many Mississippi schools lead to children being expelled and even incarcerated for minor infractions, policies that disproportionally affect minorities.

A joint report by groups including the ACLU and NAACP says the problems are more widespread than just the city of Meridian, where the U.S. Justice Department has filed a suit claiming officials are running a “school-to-prison pipeline” for minor infractions.

The groups say the Meridian lawsuit is just one example of a problem “that has plagued Mississippi schools statewide for years.” The report was a joint project of the state chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People with the Mississippi Coalition for the Prevention of Schoolhouse to Jailhouse and the Advancement Project. They plan to discuss it at an 11 a.m. CST news conference Thursday.

In Juvenile Detention, Girls Face Health Care Designed for Boys, Gant Daily

Over the past decade, Leslie Acoca, who founded and directs the National Girls Health and Justice Institute, has visited dozens of juvenile detention centers across the country, researching the health care given to girls in the facilities. Her work has yielded a surprising finding: poor physical health seems to increase girls’ risk of recidivism. In other words, girls who have health problems are more likely to reoffend and end up back in the criminal justice system.

Leslie Acoca, who founded and directs the National Girls Health and Justice Institute, gives a Girls Health Screen to Reylene (Photo by Jenny Gold/KHN).

Acoca is a psychologist who became interested in the treatment of girls in detention while serving as an expert witness in a California courtroom 12 years ago. As Acoca explains it, a young woman hobbled into the courtroom eight months pregnant and fully shackled at her feet, wrists and belly. Acoca stood up and asked the judge why the girl was bound in that way, to which the judge replied that the young woman was a flight risk.

“Have you ever been pregnant?” Acoca asked the male judge; she was promptly escorted out of the courtroom.

Report Finds Juvenile Incarceration Ineffective in Preventing Crime, The Cavalier Daily

The current legal system incarcerates too many minors, according to a National Research Council report led by University Law Prof. Richard J. Bonnie. Scientific research into adolescent development suggests confinement is not advisable for minors, as juveniles are less likely to reoffend if sentenced with community service and other measures of restitution instead of jail time.

The legal system was founded on assumptions that do not apply to minors, according to the report. Instead, researchers are advocating for the juvenile legal system to be informed by recent scientific findings.

“Our committee was charged with reviewing the growing body of behavioral and neuroscientific knowledge about adolescent development and drawing out [its] implications for the design and operation of the juvenile justice system,” Bonnie said in an email.

Juvenile incarceration tends to increase the rate of second offenses rather than reduce it, according to the report. Most adolescents mature out of certain qualities that tend to lead to crime, including a high sensitivity to peer influence and high tendency to make decisions without regard to the future.

Juvenile Justice has Lots its Way, The Gleanor

It is unfortunate that the Jamaican juvenile justice system has lost its traditional focus and 16-year-old Vanessa Wint had to die to remind us that the Horizon Adult Correctional Centre is not a place to house adolescents.

This youngster needed to be on the psychiatric ward of a hospital, where the necessary mental-health care that she required could be administered.

After 50 years of Independence, it goes without a doubt that the care of Jamaica’s most vulnerable (children) is deficient in its adherence to basic human rights, such as health care. Regardless of circumstance, the child should not have died.

Forrest County Jail ‘Backslinding’, Jackson Free Press

Forrest County is moving backward when it comes to making changes at its youth detention center.

A Southern Poverty Law Center lawsuit filed on behalf of children housed at the Forrest County Juvenile Detention Center resulted in a settlement to end what the SPLC calls “dangerous conditions” at the jail.

A full year after the settlement was reached, however, an independent monitor assigned to keep track of the county’s progress concludes Forrest County is behind schedule or backsliding in implementing reforms.

“It’s disappointing that the county has not made more significant progress,” SPLC staff attorney Elissa Johnson said.

Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases challenging the constitutionality of sentencing minors convicted of murder to life in prison without a chance for parole. The two cases are Miller v. Alabama (Case No. 10-9646) and Jackson v. Hobbs (Case No. 10-9647).

SCOTUSblog has provided a comprehensive background and analysis of both cases:

The facts in these two cases are typically tragic: youths who lived in violent homes, suffering from low self-esteem, moral neglect and worse, who then turn a criminal opportunity — maybe clumsily planned — into a homicide.

Evan James Miller grew up in a poverty-stricken family in rural north-central Alabama, with a father so physically abusive that the boy tried six times to commit suicide — the first time when he was five years old. Beginning at age 8, he was treated from time to time for mental health problems. He and his siblings were removed from their home and put in foster care, when Evan was ten. After returning home, he became an active drug abuser.

In the summer of 2003, when he was 14, his family was living in the Country Life Trailer Court in what is known locally as the Five Points community, near the small town of Speake, Ala. Cole Cannon, 52, was a neighbor in the trailer park, and on the night of July 15, in a drunken state, he came to the Miller trailer looking for food. While he ate a plate of spaghetti, Evan and a visiting friend, 16-year-old Colby Smith, decided not to go to bed, but to go to Cannon’s trailer. They found a collection of baseball cards, and decided to sell them to get some money. Later on in the evening, Cannon, along with the boys, returned to the trailer. After drinking whiskey and smoking marijuana, a fight broke out, and Evan began hitting Cannon with a baseball bat, inflicting a serious head wound and breaking several ribs.

The boys took about $300 from Cannon’s wallet, and split it. They tried to clean up the blood around the trailer, and then decided to burn it. Thinking that the fire could be put out after they left, they turned on a faucet in a stopped-up sink and left. The fire burned on, and Cannon, severely enough injured that he could not get up from the floor, died in the fire, apparently of smoke inhalation. Evan was charged with two counts of murder, one count during an arson, and one count during a robbery. Colby made a deal to testify against Evan. Evan was tried as an adult, convicted of the charge of murder during an arson, and was given a mandatory prison sentence of life without parole. The defense lawyer failed to persuade the judge that the sentence was invalid under the Eighth Amendment. The Alabama Court of Appeals upheld the conviction and sentence.

In the Arkansas case, the youth is Kuntrell Jackson, of Blytheville. He grew up in housing projects there, the scenes of drug abuse and other crimes, and had a very troubled youth without his father and with an abusive father figure in his mother’s boyfriend. His mother and a brother were sent to prison. Kuntrell was often in trouble with the police, for shoplifting, auto theft and other crimes, and had served time in a juvenile detention center as a serious offender.

On November 18, 1999, 14 days after his 14th birthday, he and two older youths, Derrick Shields and Travis Booker, decided to rob a local video store, Movie Magic. The two other boys, older than Kuntrell, went in first. He would later say that his role was to be the lookout, but, he too, entered the store. The boys demanded money from the store clerk, Laurie Troup. She refused, and said she was going to call the police, so one of the boys who had brought a shotgun shot her in the face, killing her. Kuntrell would later claim that Shields had been the shooter. The three fled the scene without taking any money.

Arrested months later, the boys admitted the crime. Kuntrell sought to be tried in juvenile court, but that was refused mainly because of his prior criminal record. He was convicted of capital murder and aggravated robbery, and sentenced to a mandatory life-without-parole term. Later, in 2008, after the Supreme Court had decided Roper v. Simmons, ruling out the death penalty for minors who committed murder as minors, Kuntrell’s lawyers began a constitutional challenge to his sentence. The state Supreme Court upheld the sentence, concluding that the Supreme Court’s more recent decision in Graham v. Florida had drawn a clear constitutional line between homicide and non-homicide crimes for purposes of a life-without-parole sentence for a minor.

Transcripts in the Miller and Jackson cases were made available by the Supreme Court today. Audio is expected Friday at the Court’s website.

Argument Recaps: Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog has written a thoughtful and comprehensive recap of the ninety combined minutes of oral arguments. Another brief recap can be found at the Huffington Post.

Additional information, court filings, and media coverage are available below:

Briefs for the Petitioners:

• Miller v. Alabama
• Jackson v. Hobbs

List of Amicus briefs filed:

• Miller v. Alabama
• Jackson v. Hobbs

Media Coverage (special thanks to NJDC for compiling):

• Juveniles Don’t Deserve Life Sentences – Gail Garringer, New York Times Op-ed ( March 14, 2012)
• Giving Jailed Juveniles a Second Chance at Life – Marian Wright Edleman, Washington Post Op-ed (March 15, 2012)
• Supreme Court Cases Could Determine the Fate of Michigan’s Youngest Criminals – Michigan Radio Newsroom (March 15, 2012)
• Cases Question Life in Prison Sentences for Juvenile Crimes – Brian Freskos, StarNews Online (March 18, 2012)
• Don’t put Juveniles in Jail for Life – Laurence Steinberg, CNN (March 19, 2012)

UPDATE (24 Mar 2012): Audio files of oral arguments are now online at the Supreme Court’s website: Alabama v. Miller; Jackson v. Hobbs.