In the 1990s, an academic named John Dilulio published an article describing the “superpredator.” He explained that a “moral poverty” in U.S. cities would result in a flood of 30,000 murderous teenagers, born criminals lacking in empathy or restraint. This gave a name to an existing societal fear of Black children. Today, with new laws…
With the recent deaths of French Quarter tour guide Kristie Thibodeaux and 15-year-old Jvoine Elow Jr., New Orleans’ juvenile electronic monitoring program is facing unprecedented scrutiny given its small size. The city is proposing an additional $2 million dollars in spending to expand the program from its current level of ~20 kids to 200, and…
In Orleans Parish, the eligibility criteria for juvenile Electronic Monitoring (EM) clearly requires a child to have a RAI score of 10-11. Unclear, however, is how these scores are calculated and what they mean for public safety. But what is an RAI? Risk Assessment Instruments are tools used to assess a defendant’s risk to themselves…
