Raised by the Courts.

Raised by the Courts

By Irene Sullivan

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May 2010 that juveniles could not be sentenced to life without parole for crimes short of homicide, Judge Irene Sullivan breathed a sigh of relief. She then promptly continued to build a case for the reforms necessary for aligning America's juvenile system with international human rights standards.

Raised by the Courts: One Judge's Insight into Juvenile Justice represents a career's worth of lessons Sullivan has learned on the bench as a circuit judge in Florida's unified family court. Sullivan has met thousands of children, at-risk, and teenage offenders.

She has seen case after case of young people who have made their way from abuse victimization to foster care to juvenile justice to adult corrections. In the book, Sullivan provides a "do what works" manifesto for juvenile justice in the U.S.

Sullivan traces the process by which she came to her understanding of American juvenile justice, from the awakening offered by her earliest cases to her despair over problems to enlightenment afforded by today's most effective prevention and rehabilitation programs.

Along the way, she highlights some of the biggest challenges--a growing and underserved population of girls in the...