A locally produced documentary on the state’s juvenile justice system will air on Wyoming PBS this Sunday.
Marc Homer is the kid’s count director at the Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance, and director of the film “Your Neighbor's Child”. He says the film, which was originally released a year ago, is aimed at spurring change in the state. But Homer says Wyoming still has the highest rate of juvenile incarceration in the U-S.
"We know that we have a very strange system in that 85 percent of our kids are going through adult courts," Homer said. "And we know that we spend an inordinate amount of money doing things that are against research-based best practices that we know could improve the lives of kids going through our system. And it would actually make our communities safer to roll back some of our reliance on detention practices, to implement a juvenile just system for all kids."
Homer says he hopes the re-broadcast this weekend will help prompt lawmakers to continue discussing juvenile justice issues.
“Your Neighbor's Child” will air on Nov. 6 at one o’clock on Wyoming PBS.