Honors students gathered with experts to examine the juvenile justice system in Prince George's County, the state of Maryland, and the United States.
While crime rates among American youths are not significantly higher than anywhere else, the U.S. incarcerates the highest proportion of children and adolescents in the world. Students explored how the U.S. can make juvenile justice more cost-effective and more humane.
Laura Miller, shares how UMD student organization, The Voice, empowers incarcerated youth in Laurel, Md. to write poetry.
County Circuit Judge Leo Green Jr. and The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth's Rebecca Turner also provided expertise on sentencing laws and criminal justice reform.
Honors Professor Peter Leone discusses the overrepresentation of individuals with significant mental health problems in juvenile correction facilities in seminar, "From Willowbrook to Attica: Delinquency in the Context of Disability."
UMD Professor Joseph Richardson, who teaches a course on the prison industrial complex, recounted his own experience with the juvenile justice system as a teenager.
The Honors College provides a variety of course enrichments for students throughout the year.
Credits:
Gillian Casey (photos)