Dionntai Holyfield is a 2026 graduate of Wheaton College, where he studied Psychology and Anthropology. He graduated summa cum laude and was the 2026 recipient of the J. Richard Chase Award of Merit. At the age of 16, Dionntai was convicted of a felony and tried as an adult, receiving an 18-year sentence in Ohio. He was released two years early in 2022 at the age of 31.  Naomi Thompson, a sophomore Urban Studies major at Wheaton College, leads a ministry at a local juvenile detention facility. She sat down with Dionntai to hear his story. This is Part 1 of […]

Being in a new environment always carries challenges, but in the juvenile justice system those challenges are amplified. Since his admission to a youth center, Johnson* struggled greatly with anxiety. He was not only the newest member of the program, but also a different race from the rest of the young men, making him a target. Rather than give in to their demands, Johnson had been involved in a couple of altercations, none of which he knew how to handle well. The situation left him fearful to even leave his room.   What Johnson needed was not simply behavioral management or a […]

In September 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the D.C. Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safe Act (D.C. CRIMES Act) by a vote of 240-179. One of the D.C. Crimes Act’s provisions is a redefinition of who counts as a youth offender in the nation’s capital. Right now, the Youth Rehabilitation Act (YRA) in D.C. extends youth offender status to individuals up to age 24, which allows judges to give out sentences with the offender’s developmental level in mind and makes it legally possible for youth offenders to clear their permanent record.  The D.C. CRIMES Act would not eliminate […]

Brett Abrams was only 14 years old when he was convicted of second-degree murder in 1984. Since 1993, he has been eligible for parole, yet he has been denied every single time, despite being a strong candidate on paper. Over his 40 years of incarceration in a North Carolina maximum-security prison, he has accrued only 11 infractions—the last in 2005, and has spent five days a week working a full-time job at a meat packaging plant. Abrams has spent the majority of his life incarcerated, a reality often described as “death by incarceration.”  Cases like Abrams’ raise a fundamental question: how […]

Since June 2025, the Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) has hosted a series of hearings exploring the past, present, and future of religious liberty in America. While these hearings have largely reflected agreement among panelists, the Commission’s fifth hearing—focused on antisemitism—revealed deeper disagreements, particularly around whether anti-Zionism should be understood as antisemitism. These disagreements raise an important and longstanding question: What role, if any, should government play in resolving religious or doctrinal disputes? Answering this question requires clarity about the proper role of government itself. From a public justice perspective, government is responsible for upholding justice for all people and institutions in […]