SUMMARY:Following a week in the life of a middle schooler, the new film "Eighth Grade" sets the familiar fumblings of adolescence against the constant glare of a glowing screen or Snapchat filter. Jeffrey Brown takes a look at why it’s drawing strong critical praise for its raw portrayal of the challenges of being a teenager in the digital age.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):There’s a deep-seated culture of violence against teen inmates at one of the country’s largest municipal jails, Rikers Island in New York City. That’s how the U.S. attorney in Manhattan described practices and conduct there in a report released yesterday.
It also said staff at Rikers Island — quote — “routinely utilize force not as a last result, but instead as a means to control the adolescent population.”
Among his findings, the U.S. attorney reported: Nearly 44 percent of male teens between 16 and 18 years old have been subjected to force at least once while in custody, a striking number of serious injuries, including broken jaws and bone fractures, and investigations and incident reports that were often incomplete or falsified.
Benjamin Weiser has been covering the story for The New York Times, and joins me now.
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): Now the second of a two-part look at efforts to prevent felons from returning to New York's Rikers Island jail once they have served their time.
Last night, NewsHour economics correspondent Paul Solman reported on a new way of creating private financing for such public programs.
Tonight, he explores how the program hopes to keep participants from ending up in jail again.
It's part of his ongoing reporting Making Sense of financial news.
PAUL SOLMAN (Newshour): High school on New York City's Rikers Island, the world's largest jail. Though they make up just 6 percent of the population, the teen inmates here pose some of the biggest problems.
DORA SCHRIRO, New York City Department of Corrections: They contribute to 28 percent of all of the fights, which is the most common form of misconduct in a jail setting.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): One would be hard-pressed to think of any connection linking Rikers Island, Goldman Sachs, and a private charitable foundation. But they're all part of a new way to finance government social services through private investment.
The NewsHour's economics correspondent, Paul Solman, looked into the project as part of his ongoing reporting Making Sense of financial news.
PAUL SOLMAN (Newshour): New York City's infamous Rikers Island jail, responsible for the bulk of the city's billion-dollar corrections budget, it's home to 88,000 inmates a year, many of them regular repeat offenders.
JUDITH RODIN, Rockefeller Foundation: A complete turnstile.
PAUL SOLMAN: Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin has been as despairing as most social reformers about so-called turnstile recidivism and its costs, both to the taxpayer and to society.
JUDITH RODIN: These people don't get put back in prison for doing nothing, so there's all the social costs of what next crime they commit during this period and throughout the remaining periods that make them go back, and back, and back numerous times.
PAUL SOLMAN: But, in 2010, Rodin heard about a new financial approach to recidivism: social impact bonds.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
*Anti-First Amendment policies that attempt to turn America into a theocracy by enshrining ANY religious belief as law.
* Any attempt to suppress human or Constitutional rights.
* Any law or policy that supports discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, race/color, gender, sexual orientation, or any law that does NOT support Equal Treatment under the law.
*Any law or policy that attempts to suppress Freedom of the Press or Free Speech.
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