At age 15, Z received his sentence in adult court. The reason why dates back 40 years, to a child named Willie Bosket. His crimes changed everything for kids and criminal justice.
In 1978, Bosket murdered two people on the New York City subway. Despite the severity of his crime, he received a sentence of just 5 years, and the tabloids went wild. The result: a new state law that has pushed thousands of kids into the adult system, an approach that’s been adopted by states across the country. We look back at Willie Bosket: his childhood, his extreme and atypical violence, and the specific challenges he presented to the juvenile justice system, even before he became a murderer.
Caught is supported, in part, by the Anne Levy Fund, Margaret Neubart Foundation, the John and Gwen Smart Family Foundation, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Episode 3: 'He Really Wants to Shoot Someone'

Mass incarceration starts young. These kids say the system changes them forever.

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From host Kai Wright and the team that brought you Caught, The Stakes is a new show about what's not working in our society, how we can do better and why we have to. In this episode, hear from Kristin, a gender fluid, pansexual 21-year-old. She takes Kai into her online and IRL world of cartoon cats in crop tops, Instagram icons and friends who see gender as just another construct. Along the way, she engages Kai and others in an intergenerational queer conversation about the meaning of labels and categories for youth today and whether they’re necessary to create and claim political and social space in the LGBTQ community.
Radio Rookies is supported in part by the Margaret Neubart Foundation and The Pinkerton Foundation.

Like 'Caught'? Try 'The Stakes'

For as long as anyone can remember, criminal justice in America has meant one thing: punishment. In the last few years, however, that has begun to change. In a six-part narrative miniseries called Charged, New York Times Magazine staff writer Emily Bazelon traces that change through the lives of people who pass through a special court in New York City designed to be a speedy machine for the harsh punishment of illegal gun possession. Along the way she’ll pose the big, thorny questions that are at the center of the national conversation about reform: What exactly makes someone a criminal? Can you ever really outrun that label? And if you’re gonna take apart the machine we’ve built in America to punish people, what do you put in its place?

Introducing Charged

From WNYC Studios, a new podcast called Aftereffect we thought you might enjoy.
In the summer of 2016, a police shooting upended the life of Arnaldo Rios Soto, a 26-year old, non-speaking, autistic man. Aftereffect tells Arnaldo's story -- a hidden world of psych wards, physical abuse and chemical restraints -- and asks the question: What made Arnaldo's life go so wrong?

Bonus: Introducing Aftereffect

Rikers Island has ended the traditional use of solitary confinement for juveniles. New York State banned it more broadly, but only for juveniles that have already been sentenced. In many counties, pre-trial juvenile offenders are still put in solitary. In this episode, WNYC teams up with The Marshall Project to investigate how widespread the practice remains. We also learn about the lasting impacts of being put in solitary, from a teenager named Imani, who spent over a month in solitary after she was accused of shoplifting.
Finally, we go upstate with Z's mom to hear how he's doing.
Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice is supported, in part, by the Anne Levy Fund, Margaret Neubart Foundation, the John and Gwen Smart Family Foundation, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Episode 9: 'You Just Sit There and Wait for the Next Day to Come'

Girls make up only a small fraction of the incarcerated juvenile population, but girls often land in detention because they have experienced some form of trauma: abusive families, bad experiences in the foster care system, and especially sexual abuse. Policy experts even use the term "sexual abuse to prison pipeline," and they say it’s why incarcerating a young girl perpetuates more negative behavior and makes it harder to exit the system. 
Desiree is a young woman who has bounced between foster care, detention centers, and residential treatment centers since she was 10. Even though she has been the repeated victim of abuse, she says she's been made to feel like she's the problem...and she's angry about it. But she has her own ideas about how to make things better and she’s making her voice heard.
Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice is supported, in part, by the Anne Levy Fund, Margaret Neubart Foundation, the John and Gwen Smart Family Foundation, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Episode 3: 'He Really Wants to Shoot Someone'

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