I recently learned of two traumatic events — both are connected to juvenile court but not to each other. I share both as further evidence of the need for best practices to take hold in our juvenile system.
Because I do not have first-hand information and because there may be additional developments in each case, I will not disclose identifying information.
The first was the suicide of a child held in a temporary detention center. Not yet a teenager, the boy had been in trouble for some time. This wasn’t his first stay in the detention center. Even though the detention facility is modern and run by an experienced and well-trained staff, the child committed suicide in his cell.
The investigation and soul-searching by all those connected with him will go on for years. That will include a search for answers to why a child so young was sent to a detention center and what alternatives might have been available.
The second jarring event occurred in a sentencing hearing for a 15-year-old boy who had been involved with delinquency court on several occasions.
[For more of this story, written by George Timberlake, go to http://jjie.org/op-ed-juvenile...tter-futures/107707/]
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