Georgia May Lose Federal Funding over Excessive Jailing of Non-Criminal Juveniles
Sunday, January 15, 2012

The state of Georgia has for years thrown into jail juveniles who have committed no crime. But to continue doing so could now cost the state millions of dollars.
Those spending time in jail are what is known as “status offenders”—runaways, truants, curfew violators, underage smokers and drinkers whose actions would not be considered crimes if they were adults.
A study commissioned by the Georgia Governor’s Office for Children and Families has warned that the incarceration of such non-criminal youths could mean losing $2 million a year from the federal government.
Legislation has been introduced in the Georgia legislature that would overhaul how the state handles status offenders. The bill calls for creating a new agency, Children in Need of Services, modeled after what 16 other states have done with their non-criminal youths. The idea is to redirect these children and teens into community-based services instead of throwing them behind bars.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Locking up Kids who Have Committed no Crime Could Cost Georgia Millions in Federal Funds (by Jim Walls, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange)
Status Offenders in Georgia’s Juvenile Justice System (by Anthony Simones and Sandra S. Stone, Georgia Governor’s Office for Children and Families) (pdf)
- Top Stories
- Unusual News
- Where is the Money Going?
- Controversies
- U.S. and the World
- Appointments and Resignations
- Latest News
- Musk and Trump Fire Members of Congress
- Trump Calls for Violent Street Demonstrations Against Himself
- Trump Changes Name of Republican Party
- The 2024 Election By the Numbers
- Bashar al-Assad—The Fall of a Rabid AntiSemite
Comments