by Vee Hua 華婷婷
by Vee Hua 華婷婷
by Agueda Pacheco Flores
On Sunday, March 3, students and friends of the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights gathered at the Seattle Rep’s PONCHO Forum to hear their colleagues read the stories of former immigrant detainees and their families.
Continue reading ‘Voices of Resistencia’: Stories of Detention and Desperation Mark La Resistencia’s 10th Anniversaryby Sarah Cusworth Walker, Ph.D., and Dr. Ben Danielson
Recent headlines about youth running away from a juvenile detention facility, and the fence currently under construction in response, have added fuel to an ongoing debate about our state’s juvenile rehabilitation system — how it’s working, if it’s working, and what to do to improve it. As that dialogue plays out, some may be tempted to adopt measures that isolate and punish young people. But now is a time to engage in careful and responsible policymaking. Research shows that investments in earlier intervention, not expensive investment in capital projects, will make our communities safer and allow young people to provide meaningful accountability to victims and seek a fresh start for their own lives.
Continue reading OPINION | If We Can Find Millions to Build Fences Around a Youth Jail, We Can Invest in Helping Youth Thriveby Vee Hua 華婷婷
by Washington Sen. Claudia Kauffman and Rep. Chris Stearns
Right now, 422 Indigenous people incarcerated in Washington’s state prisons are serving longer sentences because they were involved in the juvenile system as children.
No one should be penalized twice for crimes committed when they were young. Our focus must be on healing and rehabilitation, not punishment.
Continue reading OPINION | House Bill 2065 Would Address Racial Disparities, End Double-Penalizing for Juvenile Offensesby Vee Hua 華婷婷
by Megan Burbank
In the days after the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back national protections for abortion access in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health last year, I heard panicky speculation about what would come next: criminalizing people for their pregnancy outcomes. I have bad news, I thought grimly. That was already happening. It’s not going to be new. It’s going to be worse.
Continue reading Emerging Data Shows Pregnant People Face a Greater Risk of Prosecution Without Roe — And Not Just For Abortionby Megan Burbank
In 2014, a 16-year-old girl named Rennie Gibbs was indicted for “depraved heart murder” by a Mississippi grand jury after giving birth to a baby who died. As ProPublica’s Nina Martin reported contemporaneously, the baby’s likely cause of death was a nuchal cord, when the umbilical cord wraps around an infant’s neck. But because Gibbs had a history of drug use, an overzealous medical examiner blamed the baby’s death on Gibbs herself.
Continue reading OPINION | Pregnancy and Poverty Have Always Been Criminalized
