We began putting together the school in mid-1997. There is some history to discuss (and some thanks to give out), but my point for the moment is that there was a very large data base of research, as well as frequent circulars and fliers, that concerned young people and was readily available to us all.
This dried up in January of 2001. In the last seven years there has been almost no attention paid to justice issues concerning youth. The drug war goes on unabated, the imprisonment rate of youth (along the concomitant traumatization) remains alarming, if not increasing. Schools, in a very general sense, may have improved slightly. Maybe.
But the message was clear: the Bush Justice Department had no interest in justice for young people.
I look forward to seeing how policies affecting children will change. It will be interesting.
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