Juvenile Justice

Bobby Bostic walked out of a Missouri prison in November. His freedom is roughly two centuries ahead of schedule.

Michael Politte was a teenager when he was convicted of murdering his mother, Rita. He has long insisted he did not do it.

Linda Dickerson-Bell said she believes Michael Politte is innocent of the murder of his mother, Rita Politte.

Michael Politte is serving a life sentence after a jury found he murdered his mother, Rita Politte, as a 14-year-old in Washington County, Missouri. On this special edition of "St. Louis on the Air," attorneys for the Midwest Innocence Project and the MacArthur Justice Center explain why he’s not guilty — and what investigators got wrong.

A class-action lawsuit changing how Missouri handles parole hearings has meant new hope for 98 Missouri men sentenced to life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles. "St. Louis on the Air" talked to several men who have been released after decades behind bars.

Earlier this month, when Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton announced a plan to overhaul the state’s juvenile justice system, she repeatedly used a word that stood out to ProPublica reporter Duaa Eldeib: "love." In this interview, Eldeib talks about her reporting on Illinois’ plan and how it may have been influenced by what’s known as the Missouri Model.

Both Senate Bill 600 — the “Crime Bill” signed by Gov. Mike Parson last month — and some key proposals being pushed at the crime-focused special session now underway in Jefferson City could lead to longer sentences for Missouri defendants. Sarah Johnson of the Missouri State Public Defender and Brendan Roediger, a professor at St. Louis University School of Law, discuss the real-life ramifications.

Critics have said the system has been too punitive and too ineffective. More than half of youth who are released end up getting in trouble again....

A U.S. District Court recently ruled that the Missouri Parole Board had been violating the U.S. and Missouri Constitutions in its handling of cases…

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, May 10, 2011 - Missouri has been prosecuting an increasingly disproportionate number of…