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Legal Perspectives

Our state and federal constitutions go hand in hand to lay the foundation of our liberties. In the name of living and breathing constitutional ideology we have become a litigious legal society. The overwhelming amount of new laws and case law sometimes obscures peoples basic rights and we need to fight against these limitations based on popular...

Our state and federal constitutions go hand in hand to lay the foundation of our liberties. In the name of living and breathing constitutional ideology we have become a litigious legal society. The overwhelming amount of new laws and case law sometimes obscures peoples basic rights and we need to fight against these limitations based on popular sentiment or ideology. Our founding is based on a solid and unmovable belief in the preservation of the right of ordinary people to be the primary source of power given by God.

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Decriminalizing Status Offenders in Wyoming: Where Do We Stand?

by Tom Rose In 1974 the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) was passed mainly for the purpose of deinstitutionalizing juvenile status offenders. Most states initiated the act over the next few decades. Wyoming did not. Last week wasn't the first time I've run into stories advocating for harsher treatment for juvenile off...
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Juvenile Justice Reforms: The Other Side of the Argument


by Tom Rose As citizens we all want our communities to be safe from violent crime no matter who is committing it. At the same time, we shouldn’t sentence our juvenile offenders of minor non-violent crime to a lifetime of institutionalization. As we go forward in reform efforts let us not forget that Wyoming’s overall violent crime arrests for eithe...
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How Can We Reduce Wyoming’s Juvenile Arrest Rate?


by Tom Rose I have been researching Wyoming juvenile justice issues for several years now, and I am still sometimes surprised at what I find. When I began this research, I will admit that I was predisposed to simply believe that our law enforcement community should just stop arresting so many juveniles. After many interviews with law enforcement of...
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What would Wyoming juvenile crime look like if status offenses were decriminalized?


by Tom Rose As I mentioned in a previous blog, I believe that Wyoming should decriminalize status offenses. According to the most recent data available through both the FBI and the OJJDP, Wyoming ranks second-to-highest in the nation for both juvenile arrests and juvenile incarcerations. Wyoming is also the only state that has not decriminalized st...
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Is Juvenile Crime Decreasing in Wyoming?


by Tom Rose This week I attended two days of the Judiciary Interim Committee. There were several juvenile justice related topics on the agenda. During my attendance at these long and sometimes heated meetings a junior legislator asked out loud (in frustration) if anyone knew whether juvenile crime in Wyoming was actually decreasing. This legislator...
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WyLiberty attorney Benjamin Barr comments on the 1040 campaign checkbox in this NPR story

WyLiberty attorney Benjamin Barr comments on the 1040 campaign checkbox in this NPR story. April 14, 2015 
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New Facts Reveal More Problems with Civil Forfeiture in Wyoming


by Stephen Klein In the 2015 Wyoming Legislative Session, Senate File 14, or Senate Enrolled Act 1 (SEA 1), would have overhauled Wyoming's drug forfeiture laws to require a felony conviction before alleged drug property (cash, cars, firearms and the like) could be permanently taken by the state. The bill passed the Wyoming Legislature with an init...
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Why should Wyoming Decriminalize Status Offenses?

by Tom Rose If you have been following juvenile justice issues at all you may have come across the fact that Wyoming is the only state in the nation which has not decriminalized status offenses. You may even believe that you have an understanding of what that means. The concept is fairly simple: a status crime is an action that would not be a crime...
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Wyoming Child Wellness: How High Is Wyoming’s Youth Suicide Rate?


by Tom Rose For the last few weeks I have been writing about child wellness in Wyoming. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation Wyoming ranked 19th in the 2014 annual report which is a lower ranking than our performance of 15th according to the 2013 report. These rankings are determined according to sixteen measured wellness categories divided a...
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Wyoming Dropouts and Deaths: Child Wellness 2014


by Tom Rose In this part of the Wyoming Wellness series we look a bit more closely at a few of the specific wellness indicators related to child and teen deaths and teens who are not in school and not employed. Our starting point for following these wellness metrics is the 2014 Child Wellness report published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Kids...
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Mailing Address:

1740 H Dell Range Blvd. #274
Cheyenne, WY 82009

Phone: (307) 632-7020