Originally published on January 25, 2021 5:03 pm
The state’s highest court deadlocked Friday over how to interpret a state law that outlines the procedure judges must follow to sentence a minor who is found guilty of a crime to a state juvenile detention center.
The case, out of Rock Island County, raised the question of whether, under Illinois law, a judge must state directly in the court record that commitment to a juvenile detention facility is the “least restrictive” sentencing option.
The two-sentence opinion noted that Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert Carter, who was appointed in November to replace former Justice Thomas Kilbride, recused himself, leaving only six justices to decide on the case.
Judges Are Locking Up Children for Noncriminal Offenses Like Repeatedly Disobeying Their Parents and Skipping School ProPublica 12/22/2020
This story was co-published with Bridge Michigan.
In Michigan, judges have sent children to locked detention centers for refusing to take medication or failing to attend online class. For testing positive for using marijuana. For repeatedly disobeying their parents.
Even as other states move toward reforms focused on keeping nonviolent juvenile offenders in the community, Michigan continues to lock up children for minor transgressions that aren’t actually crimes: technical violations of probation or status offenses like truancy or staying out after curfew.
This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica Illinois is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. Sign up for The ProPublica Illinois newsletter for weekly updates.
In Michigan, judges have sent children to locked detention centers for refusing to take medication or failing to attend online class. For testing positive for using marijuana. For repeatedly disobeying their parents.
Even as other states move toward reforms focused on keeping nonviolent juvenile offenders in the community, Michigan continues to lock up children for minor transgressions that aren’t actually crimes: technical violations of probation or status offenses like truancy or staying out after curfew.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, author of “Crime and Punishment”, once wrote, “The degree of civilisation in a society is revealed by entering its prisons.” Updated for the 21st century, our “degree of civilisation” might be revealed by the technology used inside them.
For Microsoft, prisons represent a market. In recent years, the company and its business partners have started providing an array of surveillance and Big Data analytics solutions to prisons, courts and community supervision programmes.
This comes against a backdrop of global protests against police violence along with calls to defund the police and address institutional racism at every level of the criminal justice system.