Library Guides: Criminal Justice and Legal Studies: Juvenile Justice

Juvenile Justice Documentaries

Image: Parchman, 1932; 10 years old.

Second Chance Kids--Frontline
Streaming online 2017 video: inside the fight over the fate of juveniles in prison for murder, following a landmark Supreme Court ruling. 54 minutes
Juvenile Justice
A 2006 streaming Frontline episode that asks: Should teens who commit serious crimes be tried or sentenced as adults? 1 hour, 27 minutes.
Girl Trouble
Online streaming video (2016) that takes an intimate look at the compelling personal stories of three teenagers entangled in San Francisco's juvenile justice system. 131 minutes.
15 to Life: Kenneth's Story
A 2014 streaming video that asks: Does sentencing a teenager to life without parole serve society? Following a Florida man who received four life sentences at age 15, this eye-opening film reveals a justice system that routinely condemns young Americans to die in prison.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
Relevance: a component of the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice; click on Topics on the right-hand menu.

The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Argues that the War on Drugs and policies that deny convicted felons equal access to employment, housing, education, and public benefits create a permanent under caste based largely on race. Published in 2012; print & eBook available.
Just Mercy: A story of justice and redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson was a gifted young attorney when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending the poor, the wrongly condemned, and those trapped in the furthest reaches of our criminal justice system. Published in 2014; print & eBook available. UM common read for 2017.
Prison Land by Brett Story
"From broken-window policing in Detroit to prison-building in Appalachia, exploring the expansion of the carceral state and its oppressive social relations into everyday life Prison Land offers a geographic excavation of the prison as a set of social relations--including property, work, gender, and race--enacted across various landscapes of American life."