My name is Rob Wisler and I have been interning at Voices For Children for three weeks. In that time I have worked on multiple projects, each one giving me a look at issues that children in Nebraska face. These issues include lack of health insurance, juvenile justice, and the…...
Making sure youth get the right services, close to home – LB 561
Children need our care and protection to grow, thrive, and become productive members of our society. When a young person breaks the law, we must respond in a thoughtful way that gives children their best possible chance at success, while still ensuring the safety of our communities. Unfortunately, Nebraska’s juvenile…...
Time for a change: Locking youth up in Nebraska
In Nebraska we pride ourselves on having built the good life for our kids and families. Nebraskans can be proud of having made wise investments that have helped our state, children, and families weather recent tough times better than most. Unfortunately, when it comes to juvenile justice, we have a…...
What’s Next for Nebraska’s Juvenile Justice System?
On Thursday, December 6, nearly 250 Nebraskans gathered in Lincoln for Voices for Children’s first ever Juvenile Justice Summit. For the past 25 years, Voices for Children has been working to improve Nebraska’s juvenile justice system, but we know we haven’t gotten where we need to go for children and youth.…...
Cutting Our Future: The Need for Juvenile Justice Reinvestment
Nebraska’s juvenile justice system may just be on the verge of a dramatic transformation. It’s not only the reform initiatives that are underway in certain parts of the state that signal change being around the corner. Buried on pages 419-429 of the recent Health and Human Services preliminary budget, is…...
Offenses committed by YRTC youth
While institutionalizing juvenile delinquents is no longer fashionable, questioning the use of Nebraska’s Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Centers (YRTCs) is more than just concern over keeping up with current trends. A Voices for Children issue brief, published in January 2012, explored some of the problems with Nebraska’s method of…...
A closer look at Nebraska’s YRTCs
Every year, Nebraska’s courts send a number of serious and not-so-serious juvenile offenders to the Youth Residential Treatment Centers (YRTCs) in Kearney and Geneva. Like all placements and services ordered under Nebraska’s juvenile code, the goal in placing youth at these institutions should be their rehabilitation. Both YRTCs’…...
