Juvenile justice reform commission could start meeting next month

By William J. Ford

Advocates said they hope a commission created to assess Maryland’s juvenile justice system can begin meeting as early as next month, even though just four of the 28 members of the panel are in place so far.

House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) has appointed two House Judiciary Committee members, Dels. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel) and N. Scott Phillips (D-Baltimore County), to the commission. Two other members, the secretaries of Human Services and Juvenile Services, are named in the law that created the panel.

Report: Ohio school-to-prison pipeline bolstered by ‘exclusionary discipline,’ absenteeism

 By Susan Tebben

“Student disconnection” spurred on by mental health factors, disproportionate discipline and a lack of in-school supports plays its part in driving Ohio’s absenteeism rate, according to a new report from an Ohio think tank.

That absenteeism, and the contributing factors of it, can create “an entry point in the school-to-prison pipeline,” according to Policy Matters Ohio, who released a new study on the issue this month.

U.S. Department of Justice opens investigation into CoreCivic Trousdale County prison

 By J. Holly McCall and Sam Stockard

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into private prison company CoreCivic and Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, which it manages, over alleged civil rights violations.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke announced the move Tuesday morning, citing a record of assaults, murders and understaffing at the facility since it opened in 2016.

“People are incarcerated at Trousdale Turner as punishment for their crimes, but in our legal system, punishment does not and cannot include violence and sexual abuse,” said Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.