One organization’s approach focuses on the adults, not the kids.
Strategies for Youth has spent five years essentially going door to door to convince police officers they can dramatically lower the number of youth arrests, recidivism rates, and minor offenses that can lead young people to repeated encounters with the law.

It has been almost four years since Chicago police officers broke into Charlene and Samuel Holly’s Roseland home and held the couple and six of their grandchildren, ages 11 months to 13 years old, at gunpoint for more than half an hour. The officers, dressed in army-style fatigues, ordered everyone to lie on the ground, repeatedly called the children “mother-f—–s,” rummaged through the Hollys’ bedroom, questioned the 13-year-old grandson without an adult present, and strangled the family’s aging dog, Samson, according to a federal lawsuit filed in 2013.

In the coming weeks, US Attorney for Massachusetts, Carmen Ortiz, is expected to announce the results of an investigation into alleged racial harassment and discrimination at Boston Latin High, the city’s premier public exam school. The probe started after Ortiz created a full-time civil rights unit in her administration. Many welcomed the BLS inquiry. But some question the motive behind the investigation.

The Policing the Teen Brain training event seeks to improve interactions between youth and local law enforcement.
The Solano County Probation Department, Fairfield Suisun Unified School District and officers from local law enforcement agencies across Solano County will be attending the Policing the Teen Brain training event June 27-30 at the Solano County Events Center, 601 Texas Street in Fairfield. The training is funded through the Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction Grant Program which was received by the Probation Department in 2015…

Students who went to Millard North High School in the last decade probably were stopped in the halls by Officer John Martinez. He would ask about their weekends, the people they were dating or their extracurricular activities.

Some of the most high-profile incidents of police violence in recent years have involved youths and teens. In Ferguson, Michael Brown was 18. Baltimore’s Freddie Gray was 25, and had a history of encounters with police. Tamir Rice, in Cleveland, was only 12.

Laura Jenny was named the 2016 Massachusetts Youth of the Year by the Boys & Girls Club of America during a ceremony at Westfield State University. The 17-year-old Leominster High School senior will represent the Boys & Girls Club of Fitchburg and Leominster, as well as clubs from across the state, when she competes regionally with a chance of competing for the title of National Youth of the Year later this summer.

Watching an officer arrest a parent can lead to painful memories for children, one that can alter their perception of police for a lifetime. “These memories endure and then they form attitudes,” said Lisa Thurau, executive director of the non-profit Strategies for Youth.

Juvenile Justice Jeopardy was created to teach kids their legal rights and responsibilities. The idea is that the accurate knowledge—as opposed to myths and street lore—will result in better decisions being made and fewer altercations with police officers.