Duaa Eldeib at ProPublica Illinois writes—Concern Grows Over Youths at Juvenile Correctional Facility Being Sent to Adult Prison:
State officials, advocates and a federal judge on Thursday proposed remedies to better deal with youths accused of assaulting staff members at a southern Illinois juvenile correctional facility, including finding youths outside lawyers instead of local public defenders and conducting additional training for correctional officers.
“The children don’t get any justice in that courtroom. That’s the primary concern,” Ben Wolf, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said following a hearing in U.S. District Court in Chicago. “These cases are not handled the same way when they pop up in other counties. There’s more of a review process. There’s more fairness. These young people just get railroaded for the most part.”
ProPublica Illinois reported last week that guards and other employees from the Illinois Youth Center at Harrisburg have pursued more criminal charges over alleged assaults in the past two years than staff at the state’s four other juvenile facilities combined.
More than 40 criminal cases against offenders at Harrisburg since 2016 have led to felony convictions for nearly a dozen young men, as well as adult prison sentences that range from three to eight years.
The prosecutions disproportionately affect young black men from Cook County, records show. [...]
Juvenile justice officials said in court papers earlier this week they are committed to helping staff find alternatives to prosecution. But that means addressing resistance to reforms among some workers.
Some staff have said the reforms — especially limitations on solitary — have left them without the tools they need to do their jobs safely. That is especially true, some have said, given a rise in assaults on staff across the system.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—Another Scarborough political donation:
Politico's Ken Vogel flags another donation from MSNBC host Joe Scarborough to a Republican candidate, this one made in April of this year for $5,000 to a GOP candidate in Alabama. Combined with his 2006 contribution of $4,400 to a GOP congressional candidate, Scarborough has donated at least $9,400 to Republican candidates as an MSNBC host -- more than the amount that led to Keith Olbermann's suspension.
It's not just contributions, either: Vogel points out that in August, Scarborough traveled to Alabama to headline a fundraiser for the county GOP where he made his contribution.
Given the obvious double-standard here, Griffin's decision to suspend Olbermann but not Scarborough seems to be motivated by personal or political factors. After all, Joe Scarborough not only has contributed more money than Keith Olbermann, he's headlined fundraisers.
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