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Wednesday, October 9, 2024

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Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Siesta Key; expected to remain a hurricane as it moves across central FL; Groups file an emergency lawsuit to reopen FL voter registration amid hurricanes; ND wildfires: Heavy damage to cropland; importance of early warnings; Report: 67 PA counties boom for low unemployment, job growth, wage increase.

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President Biden denounces disinformation about federal disaster response. Experts address concerns about how hurricanes impact voting, and activists left and right question VP Harris' stance on meat.

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Hurricane Helene has some rural North Carolina towns worried larger communities might get more attention, mixed feelings about ranked choice voting on the Oregon ballot next month, and New York farmers earn money feeding school kids.

New snapshot of youth incarceration shows hope, but disparities persist

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Monday, August 19, 2024   

Over the past couple of years, North Dakota has implemented juvenile justice reforms.

And a new national report says there's been major progress in the U.S. in reducing youth incarceration rates, but troubling disparities remain.

The Sentencing Project is out with findings that show between 2000 and 2022, there was a 75% decline in youth incarceration around the country.

That coincides with a drop in arrest rates among minors.

The Project's Director of Youth Justice Josh Rovner said, it's worth noting that youths of color are still much more likely than white teens to be held in juvenile facilities.

"This is one of the most daunting problems, that youth of color are treated more harshly at every point of contact with the justice system," said Rovner. "They are more likely to be arrested, and after they've been arrested, they are less likely to be referred to diversionary programs."

Nationally, Indigenous youths were nearly 3.5 times more likely than whites to be detained.

Native Americans are the largest minority population in North Dakota, and a separate state report found that in 2023, Indigenous youths represented 30% of juvenile detentions.

Rovner said he feels that "over-policing" is a factor, and limiting law enforcement interactions for non-serious offenses can help reduce disparities.

Rovner said one way to do that is by overhauling how police officers are placed in the school setting.

As for the long-term progress overall, Rovner said he hopes the public takes notice of what the data show.

"I think that the reason that this report has resonance," said Rovner, "is that it's surprising to many people in the country that believe that things are always getting worse, that believe that this generation of kids is worse than any generation that came before it, when the evidence doesn't back that up."

Rovner suggested that policymakers not lose sight of how successful diversionary programs have been, and that proactive states can serve as a model for others to follow suit.

In 2021, North Dakota adopted reforms that included newly created categories for juvenile delinquency and child welfare.

The goal was to provide more clarity on which types of cases needed referral to the courts, and which ones were better suited for the human services system.




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