Recent Articles

Mark Sorkin

Mark Sorkin
July 28, 2008 14:11

After 388 posts in less than 365 days, nearly 40,000 visitors and 191 comments, I have decided to put Juvienation on hiatus until further notice. Please feel free to rummage through the archives, refer to the blogroll and further reading page and use this post as an open thread. I’m keeping...

Mark Sorkin

Mark Sorkin
July 06, 2008 17:06

I’m off to Italy this afternoon and won’t be posting any updates while I’m traveling. Please feel free to comb through the archives and hit the links on the blogroll while the site is on hiatus. If you’re looking for updates on the OJJDP scandal, the best resource is Youth...

Mark Sorkin

Mark Sorkin
July 03, 2008 19:33

An editorial in today’s Times offers strong support for the “comprehensive approach” to juvenile justice reform that informs the Senate’s JJDPA reauthorization bill (background here). “This bill represents an important step toward rational and compassionate justice for...

Mark Sorkin

Mark Sorkin
June 27, 2008 18:06

Juvienation is now registered in the blawg.com directory, in the “Family Law” subsection of the “Legal Subjects and Areas” section. Lots of good company in there–check it out.Juvienation is now registered in the blawg.com directory, in the “Family Law”...

Mark Sorkin

Mark Sorkin
June 27, 2008 15:32

Last Sunday George Will, the bowtie-wearing dean of conservative punditry, published an op-ed in the Washington Post called “More Prisons, Less Crime.” In the piece Will gave prominent attention to his colleagues and fellow travelers Heather Macdonald and James Q. Wilson, citing at...

Mark Sorkin

Mark Sorkin
June 26, 2008 17:19

Why did Barack Obama disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana? “I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes,” Obama said at a news conference yesterday in...

Mark Sorkin

Mark Sorkin
June 25, 2008 20:01

In today’s episode of TPM TV, Josh Marshall (who won the prestigious Polk award for exposing the US Attorneys scandal) explains why yesterday’s report on illegal hiring practices at the Justice Department, though focusing narrowly on a small part of a wider investigation, should be read...

Mark Sorkin

Mark Sorkin
June 25, 2008 17:50

From the Baltimore Sun, news that the Justice Department filed motions yesterday to end federal oversight of two dysfunctional juvenile justice facilities in Maryland. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, an op-ed by Sara Totonchi, public policy director at the Southern Center for Human Rights in...

Mark Sorkin

Mark Sorkin
June 25, 2008 15:44

Youth Today’s Patrick Boyle, who broke the story on the scandalous OJJDP grantmaking process, has an update following last week’s oversight committee hearings. OJJDP chief of staff Michele DeKonty, who took the Fifth rather than submit testimony at the hearings (and who apparently...

Mark Sorkin

Mark Sorkin
June 25, 2008 15:13

The Justice Department’s inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility released a joint report yesterday investigating allegations of politicized hiring at the DOJ. The report, according to the introduction (a PDF of the whole document is available here), looked into...