Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy called for juvenile justice reform in a keynote address  at the “Children and the Law” conference in New York this week:

“If you’re not a Native American, or your people were not brought here in slavery, everyone came here for a second chance, or a third or fifth chance,” Malloy said in a keynote address at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York yesterday.

“That’s who we are fundamentally as a nation.”

But in today’s polarized political climate, he added, America has “turned its back” on the concept of providing second chances—particularly in our approach to criminal justice, where authorities are more inclined towards punishment than rehabilitation.

Nowhere is such an approach more counter-productive than in the way many jurisdictions fail to explore evidence-based alternatives to jail for young people who get into persistent trouble with authorities, he said.

“No one should go to jail, simply because we have lost patience,” said Malloy, who has spearheaded a transformation in his state’s juvenile justice system that has made Connecticut one of the nation’s acknowledged leaders in justice reform.”