Reclaiming Futures and Organizing Justice for Drug-Using Youth
When researchers examined new survey findings from communities that participated in the Reclaiming Futures initiative over a ten-year period, the data suggest that communities with the strongest engagement in Reclaiming Futures tend to have more positive perceptions of their youth justice and substance abuse treatment systems, including key facets of administration, collaboration, and overall system quality. In communities where the survey scores increased significantly during the early years of Reclaiming Futures, improvements were sustained through 2015. Thus, robust implementation of Reclaiming Futures may be associated with lasting improvements in system operations. Continue reading Reclaiming Futures and Organizing Justice for Drug-Using Youth
Portland Press Herald—Recent Rape Offers Good Argument for ‘A Gun in Hand,’ Waterville Police Chief Says
Jeffrey Butts, director of the research and evaluation center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said the Waterville chief’s comments are “typical of the immediate gut reaction to horrific crimes.” “It is easy to indulge in the Wild West fantasy that crime would be deterred if we were all armed all the time, and undoubtedly this is true,” Butts said Thursday. “But far more crimes would be created than prevented by widespread gun ownership.” Continue reading Portland Press Herald—Recent Rape Offers Good Argument for ‘A Gun in Hand,’ Waterville Police Chief Says
Tallahassee Democrat—Data Does Not Support State Attorneys’ Argument
No credible study ever located the source of the crime drop in the power of prosecutors to send youth to adult courts and adult prisons. There is just no compelling evidence to suggest that prosecutors may rightfully claim the credit for falling rates of violent youth crime. Not even in Florida. Continue reading Tallahassee Democrat—Data Does Not Support State Attorneys’ Argument
Gainesville Sun—Prosecutorial Power Unrelated to Drop in Crime
Despite a sustained effort to study these policies over the last two decades, researchers have not found that increasing prosecutorial power reduces crime, and the practice of putting young people in the adult criminal justice system is not only ineffective, it has many negative side effects. Continue reading Gainesville Sun—Prosecutorial Power Unrelated to Drop in Crime
JeffreyButts.net 