During the late 1980s and 1990s, Illinois’ youth prisons began filling up rapidly. The tough-on-crime approach that began in the 1960s was at the peak of popularity, and state law reflected it in mandatory minimum sentences and other provisions. From 1985 to 2000, the state’s population of incarcerated youth more than doubled, from 1,534 to […]
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‘We must do better for our young people’
Illinois’ system of warehousing juvenile delinquents doesn’t work, according to a state-appointed reform group calling for sweeping changes in how youth offenders are handled. The Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission, a state advisory group mandated by federal law, revealed Dec. 13 a damning report on the failures of Illinois’ juvenile justice system. More than half of […]
