The Rising Cost of Ignoring Juvenile Justice Reform
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Massachusetts has long been recognized as a leader in juvenile justice reform. Yet, the latest findings from the Juvenile Justice Policy and Data (JJPAD) Board's 2024 Annual Report paint a troubling picture: We are backsliding.
Americans believe law enforcement officers are trained and have policies for interacting with youth. For the most part, they have neither. What we have right now is justice by geography. Different law enforcement agencies have different levels of policies and training for encounters with young people. Massachusetts youth deserve better, and so do the police officers tasked with keeping everyone safe. The same can be said for youth and police nationwide.
Cars speed by a parked police cruiser in Chelsea, Mass., on April 21, 2023.
Cars speed by a parked police cruiser in Chelsea, Mass., on April 21, 2023.
JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images
The Massachusetts JJPAD numbers show the devastating and disproportionate impacts of this reality. In its latest report released in late March, the JJPAD shows that the use of physical custody for youths increased over the previous year—a 17 percent hike in pretrial detention and 7 percent bump in arrests. These increases are not related to spikes in violent crimes committed by young people; they are the result of law enforcement's decision to arrest young people for misdemeanors—or minor offenses—instead of issuing citations, warnings, or some other informal sanction.
Race also plays a deepening and disturbing role. The JJPAD's report showed Black youth were nearly 5.5 times more likely to be arrested compared to white youth in Massachusetts, and nearly three times more likely to be issued a summons. Overnight arrest admissions? Those went up by 13 and 16 percent for Black and Latino youth, respectively, while overnight arrest admissions for white youth decreased22 percent.
Study after study proves that even brief encounters with the system can have devastating effects on a young person's well-being and future. Being a kid is hard, and policing kids is hard. It's past time that we as a commonwealth take full action to turn the tides toward developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed and equitable training, and policies to ensure best outcomes when law enforcement and youth interact.
The commonwealth has worked hard to promote the use of informal and formal diversion by police, clerk magistrates, district attorneys, and judges. Diversion is especially appropriate for youth who commit low-level offenses. But the data from this report suggests that law enforcement officials are increasingly opting to go the "tough on crime" route with adolescents of color.
The state's Justice, Equity and Accountability in Law Enforcement Act, passed in December 2020, set out to achieve clear goals—establishing the nation's first model law enforcement policies for interactions with youth. The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission continues to develop those vital policies now—juvenile operations standards required for certification of law enforcement agencies.
A clear road map exists. The Cambridge-based national policy and training nonprofit organization Strategies for Youth developed the 12 Model Law Enforcement Policies for Youth Interaction report in 2023, available to any and all law enforcement agencies. Statewide guidance on youth-specific policing policies, including guidance on race and immigration status, use of force, non-custodial interviews, and more, would help position our next generation for better outcomes.
After all, when encounters between police and youth go wrong, we all pay the price.
The JJPAD report is yet another wake-up call. It's time for Massachusetts to lead in the name of juvenile justice, and for other states to act now as well. A pragmatic, feasible solution is within our grasp; we just need to reach for it.
Lisa Thurau is the founder and executive director of Strategies for Youth, a national policy and training organization based in Cambridge dedicated to improving law enforcement and youth interactions through developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed, and equitable training. Lisa has advocated for youth as an attorney for more than 20 years.
Larry E. Ellison is a retired Boston Police Department detective and former president of MAMLEO, the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers, Inc.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
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Hamilton Spectator
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A monument to white victims The Witkruis Monument was started in 2004 but recognizes victims going back to 1994. Each year, more crosses are planted to memorialize white farmers and their family members who were killed, organizers say. Recently, they've planted around 50 crosses a year. Kobus de Lange, a local Afrikaner farmer, has taken on the role of caretaker of Witkruis. He gave The Associated Press access to see the memorial, bringing along his wife and children to help tidy up the monument in the country's north, near the town of Mokopane. De Lange expressed the fear and frustration of a white farming community that feels authorities have not done enough to protect them. One of his sons wore a T-shirt with the slogan 'enough is enough' — written in their Afrikaans language — in reference to the killings. But de Lange acknowledged that the memorial does not capture the full scope of farm killings. 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AfriForum's numbers don't include killings of Black farmers and workers, and the country's official crime statistics are not broken down by race. Black people make up more than 80% of South Africa's population of 62 million, and most victims of violent crime across South Africa are Black. But there is no public relations campaign to raise awareness about the killing of Black farmers. Across racial lines, most public outcry about crime in South Africa is over the high rates of rape and murder of women and children, which mostly takes place in cities and townships. To tamp down misinformation, South African police last month took the unprecedented step of providing a racial breakdown of farm killings during the first three months of the year. Between January and March, there were six murders on farms, down from 12 during the same period last year. One of the victims was white, the rest were Black. 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The Trump administration has cited a chant used by a minority Black-led political party in South Africa that has the lyrics 'shoot the farmer' as contributing to what it claims is the racially motivated killings of white farmers. Violent crimes against farmers were a problem for years before the apartheid-era chant was revived. The South African government investigated farm killings in 2003. It interviewed dozens of police detectives and other experts and concluded that robbery was the most common motive for violent crimes, including murders, that occurred on farms. A study by the South African Human Rights Commission in 2015 reached a similar conclusion. 'It is criminal individuals and groups that are targeting them because they are considered vulnerable,' said Newham, who has researched the subject for more than 15 years. 'They have things like cars, guns and laptops.' In some cases, perpetrators are former laborers who return to attack, kill and rob farm owners to settle disputes over money. In others, disgruntled former employees had returned simply for revenge, according to historical records of the National Prosecuting Authority. ___ Nqunjana reported from Normandien, South Africa. ___ More AP news on South Africa: Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
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Last month, Trump escalated the rhetoric, using the term 'genocide' to describe violence against white farmers. The South African government and experts who have studied farm killings have publicly denounced the misinformation spread by Trump and others. Even the caretaker of Witkruis says the monument — which makes no reference to the hundreds of Black South African farmers and farmworkers who have been killed — does not tell the complete story. The killings of farmers and farmworkers, regardless of race, are a tiny percentage of the country's high level of crime, and they typically occur during armed robberies, according to available statistics and two studies carried out over the last 25 years. Yet because wealthier white people own 72% of South Africa's privately owned farms, according to census data, they are disproportionately affected by these often brutal crimes. 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Black people make up more than 80% of South Africa's population of 62 million, and most victims of violent crime across South Africa are Black. But there is no public relations campaign to raise awareness about the killing of Black farmers. Across racial lines, most public outcry about crime in South Africa is over the high rates of rape and murder of women and children, which mostly takes place in cities and townships. To tamp down misinformation, South African police last month took the unprecedented step of providing a racial breakdown of farm killings during the first three months of the year. Between January and March, there were six murders on farms, down from 12 during the same period last year. One of the victims was white, the rest were Black. 'What Donald Trump is saying about whites being targeted does not exist,' said MmaNtuli Buthelezi, who lives on a farm in Normandien, a rural area in KwaZulu-Natal province. Black farmworkers also feel vulnerable, Buthelezi said. 'We don't even have small firearms. Our weapons are just a spear and a shield, and sticks we get from the woods.' Nomandien is an area where the farming community planted white crosses to raise awareness about farm killings in 2020. During a White House visit last month by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trump showed a video in which he incorrectly referred to the location as a 'burial site' of slain white farmers. Also, and without evidence, Trump has accused South Africa's Black-led government of 'fueling' what he said was racially motivated violence against whites. In February, Trump issued an executive order punishing the country by banning all U.S. aid and assistance to South Africa. The Trump administration has cited a chant used by a minority Black-led political party in South Africa that has the lyrics 'shoot the farmer' as contributing to what it claims is the racially motivated killings of white farmers. 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