This article is the first in CPJ’s Shared Justice series on involving families and communities in the juvenile justice system. In the United States, courts will hear nearly 800,000 juvenile justice cases per year. In the current complex system, probation officers and parents often work against each other rather than with each other; this series outlines the tangible ways families can be involved in the restorative process for their children who are in the justice system. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends-as-close-as-family, because of the significant role they play in our lives, have an outstanding impact on our formation. […]

This article is the first in our series looking at the Invisible Social Safety Net — all of those houses of worship and faith-based organizations that provide essential social services to their communities, sometimes with the help of government funding and sometimes without that assistance. In order to unleash the power of the social safety net to support our most vulnerable neighbors, CPJ advocates for state, local, and federal governments who need to understand how to partner with and support these “invisible” links who serve not because they have to by law, but because faithfulness to their tradition calls them […]

To read the full research behind this op-ed, visit our 2024 Hatfield Prize page here. My shirt is soaked with sweat after a long day framing on a residential construction crew in the sweltering Western Kentucky summer. I glance back on the day’s work, the house’s wooden exterior taking shape, before hopping into my truck. I think about how this journey began five years ago when I took a carpentry class at my high school’s vocational center. That class turned into another, and then another. Before I knew it, I was cutting boards and hammering nails the summer before attending […]

The best way to fight incarceration and recidivism is to keep people — especially students — out of carceral systems to begin with. We should not be unnecessarily policing schools and creating environments that are preparing kids for incarceration.

According to the Department of Justice, a healthy juvenile justice system “…enhances public safety, ensures that youth are held appropriately accountable to both crime victims and communities, and empowers youth to live productive, law-abiding lives.” The U.S. justice system for youth has failed to do all these things. Its high recidivism rates leave public safety more tenuous and perpetuates the expansion and inefficient funding of a failing system. Its focus on surveillance, punishment, and force rather than positive youth development and needs-based care is not “appropriate accountability.” Finally, the system as a whole, via its stunting effects on youths’ education […]

Preventing youth substance abuse and juvenile delinquency isn’t just about warning teens and children of the dangers of alcohol and illicit substances. It’s also about offering youth opportunities to develop resilience and hope.