federal law

It did not take long for the March 14 docket in Judge Tracy Green’s small third floor Detroit courtroom to go sideways. In the first case of the morning, Judge Green checks on the case of a 10-year-old child named Ricky* living with a foster parent, Rashida Witt, who is moving toward adopting him.

Few people outside of California probably noticed the news yesterday that the state legislature is on its way to passing new controls on the prescription of psychotropic medications to youths in foster care.

Obama’s top official on juvenile justice suggested that his office has made addressing racial fairness its priority, which had to make at least one candidate feel good about its chances to win a big training and technical assistance grant from the Justice Department.

The last time the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) was authorized, President George W. Bush’s approval rating was still hovering around 70 percent and the Boston Red Sox most recent World Series win was in 1918.