As the number of children in need of services cases continues to rise, public defenders across Indiana are stretching themselves to be able to offer competent representation while also serving as many clients as possible. Defenders are likewise feeling a strain on their misdemeanor caseloads.
The Children’s Policy and Law Initiative of Indiana will be examining juvenile justice and school discipline at its annual public policy summit during the first week of October.
The Commission on Improving the Status of Children in Indiana has tapped an individual who has experience working in nonprofits on issues facing youngsters and teens to be its first executive director.
An Indiana man who was sentenced as a juvenile to 25 years in prison for helping kill his friend's stepfather has been released after spending seven years behind bars.
Many states are taking a new look at juvenile life without parole following a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, but that ruling appears to have little impact in Indiana.
A 10-year-old boy adjudicated as a delinquent for acts that would be considered Level 4 felony child molesting if committed by an adult will have his adjudication dropped after the Indiana Court of Appeals held Friday there was insufficient evidence to support a true finding of the conduct.
Superintendent Terrance Asante-Doyle has witnessed what happens when his charges at the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center get to offer obedience training to dogs from Indianapolis Animal Care, who, like them, are often victims of abuse, exploitation or neglect.
Navigating the local court system is just one more traumatic experience for children who have been abused or neglected. But Tippecanoe County advocates believe a therapy dog to pat or scratch could ease their stress and lighten their moods.
Indiana Sen. Erin Houchin, R-Salem, will chair the Commission on Improving the Status of Children this year, as the 20-member group set its first quarterly meeting for next Wednesday.
Delaware County officials have approved plans to acquire a service dog to aid young people in the juvenile court system.
The Indiana Supreme Court has approved the release of identifying information of young offenders in juvenile courts, including full names and partial social security numbers, as part of a scholarly study into health care utilization and quality for juvenile offenders.
The Indiana Court of Appeals Friday rejected an argument that a juvenile delinquency case should have been dismissed because a fact-finding hearing wasn’t conducted within 60 days of the delinquency petition.
The number of youths finding themselves in the court system has been on a downward trend nationally and statewide, with the number of juvenile delinquency filings across Indiana steadily decreasing for the last decade.
The U.S. Supreme Court is ordering Arizona judges to reconsider life sentences with no chance of parole for five inmates who were convicted of murder for crimes they committed before they turned 18.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has allowed a Marion County man’s juvenile record to be expunged after finding that a criminal charge that was filed against him after he filed a petition for expungement cannot be held against him in the expungement case.
A federal appeals court panel has rejected a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of children who go without lawyers in deportation proceedings.
The data is still being collected but the staff at the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility is noticing the nearly 50 incarcerated young women are calmer, not filing as many grievances and reading more books. So what’s happening?
A probation officer who arrested and detained a middle school student for violating court policy has quasi-judicial immunity against charges of negligence and constitutional violations.
A Grant County teen who participated in the rape of a homeowner during his burglary of her home deserves the 40-year sentence imposed in adult court, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Friday.
The Teen Court program in Lake County, along with others in northwest Indiana, gives teens an alternative to the traditional trajectory of juvenile justice. The program uses a novel approach in which a jury of teens decides the punishment for peers who are diverted from the juvenile justice system.