Prison Reformer State Rep. Joe Rhodes Jr. of Pennsylvania dies

We lost one of the good ones this week:

Joseph Rhodes Jr., 66, formerly of Pittsburgh, served three terms as Democratic representative for the 24th District (Allegheny County), starting in 1973. He was the youngest African-American elected to the house. 

His interest in prison reform was sparked by seeing juveniles housed with adult criminals at the State Correctional Institution in Camp Hill, said his former wife, Dr. Linda Rhodes. He sponsored legislation in 1977 that amended the Juvenile Justice Act, which diverted status offenders from the juvenile justice system and made it unlawful to hold juveniles in adult jails. He considered passage of Act 41 as his greatest achievement during his three-terms as a lawmaker, Linda Rhodes said. In all, he marshaled passage of nine bills. 

He was an advocate of elderly residents of boarding homes, and introduced several bills to license and raise the standards of such facilities.

How Georgian Child Advocates Helped Bring Transparency to Juvenile Courts

With the recent controversies surrounding Georiga's DFCS, Atlanta's local NBC affiliate talks about how a group of women, originally derided as "martini-sipping, tennis-playing, ladies who lunch", brought some much needed transparency to Georgia's juvenile courts:

So real that the group wanted others to see what they saw as child advocates. They created BetterCourtsForKids.org And in addition to their paying jobs, they spent thousands of hours and drove thousands of miles to personally lobby lawmakers to open the juvenile court for cases involving abused kids.

"What I'd like to see is as many people who can get in to visit their juvenile court," said Alice McQuade, an attorney and another member of the group. "To see what's going on in their neighborhood; see what's happening to the children in their neighborhood; see how the judges are performing."

And that was important, they say, because some of the judges were putting children in danger -- kids like little Adrianna Swain.
Back in 2008, a judge sent her back home from foster care on the advice of DFCS and against the advice of everyone else. Her parents beat her so badly, she was read the last rites, but miraculously survived... 

It turned out that lawmakers cared as well. The very next year they overwhelmingly passed SB-207 to open the juvenile court in cases of deprivation.

Is New Orleans Juvenile Court Bloated?

N.O. Juvenile Court judges, coroner tell council they need more money, but:

Orleans Parish Juvenile Court has long been in the mayor’s cross-hairs. 

It has six judges, but a 2010 caseload analysis by the state Supreme Court found that the city has an overall abundance of judges, and that Juvenile Court is the most bloated of all: One juvenile judge is all the city needs, the study found. 

That finding was echoed by a report this fall by the Bureau of Governmental Research, which also put the proper number of juvenile judges at one. 

Landrieu pushed a bill in the Legislature that would have reduced the court from six judges to four. He said the move would redirect $827,000 a year from judicial salaries, benefits and support staff to youth outreach services. 

The bill was considered a sure bet to pass — so sure that the administration designed a new courthouse, now under construction, with only four courtrooms. The bill failed to pass, and the six judgeships remain.

 Meanwhile it looks as though New Orleans's "Evening Reporting Center" program that supervised a handful of children from the end of the school day to 9 p.m. and cost $110,000. Was a new, smaller courtroom really necessary?