Reclaiming Our Youth Franklin, Sekou M
After the Rebellion,
07/2014
Book Chapter
This chapter assesses post-civil rights activists in the juvenile justice reform movement (JJRM) from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. It examines how the JJRM's movement infrastructure, along with ...the regional and local political cultures that shaped the orientation of their key activists, influenced the trajectory of the campaigns. This movement infrastructure created a safe space for marginal youth and youth workers to become engaged in social activism. JJRM campaigns attempted to deinstitutionalize the juvenile justice system and combat disproportionate minority confinement. Unlike the Black Student Leadership Network (BSLN) and the movement initiatives of the 1960s, yet similar to the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s, JJRM networks were multiracial and multisectoral. The chapter places JJRM within the discussion of youth movement activism and intergenerational politics because the status of marginalized youth in relation to the juvenile justice system alerted social justice and civil rights activists about regressive policies impacting poor communities.
Many analysts and courts have made alternative dispute resolution (ADR) a key feature of proposals for civil justice reform. Professor Rosenberg and Dean Folberg were advisors to a task force which ...commissioned a study of the ADR program in the Northern District of California. This article presents the authors' extensive findings and recommendations. During the 4-year period studied, the district used an ADR process called early neutral evaluation (ENE), to which half of the cases in certain types of suits were assigned. Two-thirds of those assigned to ENE were satisfied with the process and believed it was worth the resources devoted to it; half of those assigned to ENE saved money, with average savings exceeding ten times the cost of an ENE session; and about half of the cases in which ENE sessions were held were resolved more quickly than cases not assigned to the ENE program. Despite the fact that over 80 percent of attorneys assigned to ENE reported that they would select ENE in other cases, no one whose case was not automatically assigned to ENE asked to have the case assigned, even though that option was available and known. The key predictors of a successful ENE outcome were the attitude and skills of the neutral evaluator. A number of the authors' recommendations thus focus on selecting and retaining effective neutrals.
This chapter examines the nineteenth-century foundations of Jim Crow juvenile justice, including the racialized applications of common law protections, the racial politics of houses of refuge, and ...the often horrific ordeals of black youths in the antebellum South. This illustrates how white racial group prerogatives and privileges shaped the administration of these earliest institutional reforms. Throughout the United States, these racialized denials of protection under the law and of democratic participation undermined black youth and community claims to opportunity or representation in the emerging juvenile justice system. Ultimately, this new institution of racialized social control, the white-dominated parental state, was organized to underdevelop black citizens deemed delinquent and black civil society generally and, thus, to maintain the boundaries of a white democracy. For that reason, turn-of-the-century black civic leaders organized to improve the life chances of black youths, and prospects for racial equality in American democracy, through juvenile justice reform.
The Act mandates some sweeping steps to make federal civil litigation more affordable, more accessible and less time consuming. Its passage--in under 12 months--was remarkably swift. Reviews the ...Act's substantive components and the process that led to its enactment in order to highlight the Act's potential for longterm, sweeping reforms of the civil justice system. (PAS)
A formação dos atores judiciais deve orientar-se pelo objetivo estratégico de criação de uma cultura jurídica fortemente comprometida, tanto com a qualidade, eficiência e transparência da justiça, ...como com o seu ativismo democrático, seja na promoção de direitos humanos e direitos fundamentais, seja no combate à criminalidade grave, em especial à corrupção. A questão central que se coloca é saber se os modelos de formação quer das faculdades de direito, quer da formação profissional, têm ou não potencial para responder a esse objetivo estratégico. A conclusão pela prevalência de uma formação de orientação tecnocrática, formalista e fechada à interdisciplinaridade e às inovações com potencial de criação dessa cultura judiciária exige que a política de formação seja colocada no centro das agendas estratégicas de reforma da justiça.
The “second line of defense” of caring adults played a pivotal role for countless youth, as stories in the previous chapters have highlighted. Youth were helped in their positive transformations by ...the love and devotion that committed adults had for them and tried to demonstrate in their everyday interactions. But what specifically did these adults impart to help youth navigate a more hopeful future and avoid the negative use of violence? Are there promising practices that are more restorative and empowering for youth and their families as they move forward in life? And to what policy directions do such practices
This paper provides a preliminary outline of a possible model of how the satisfaction of public opinion could be used in a rational system of sentencing. As public opinion data concerning the ...criminal justice system is becoming increasingly sophisticated and readily available, and public opinion clearly plays a role in the sentencing decision, a model whereby the satisfaction of public opinion may be judiciously and effectively incorporated into the sentencing system is urgently required. Some of the pitfalls of using public opinion data are also highlighted as a caveat to the feasibility of such a model.
This chapter explores the culminating two years of accession talks with a new government and a new Commission in place, also examining the last-minute safeguards introduced by the European Union (EU) ...to try and inject fresh momentum into justice reform. The Commission prioritised reform of the justice system in ways it had conspicuously failed to do previously. The World Bank loaned Romania money to modernise its justice system. There was a dire need for modern court facilities, more ancillary staff and higher salary rates to attract better-qualified judges. The lack of coordination inside the government between ministers from the now rival National Liberal and Democratic parties meant there was a serious neglect of the administrative reforms and economic restructuring needed to ensure that Romania entered the EU minimally prepared for the enormous challenges which lay ahead. The multi-layered EU system appeared paralysed by Romania.
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