Advocating for Play, Recreation & Leisure as Essential to Adolescent Development & Youth Defense

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In this session of our 2023 Racial Justice Training Series, Prof. Kristin Henning, Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown Law, and Mary Ann Scali, Executive Director of The Gault Center, will be joined by Dr. Linda Caldwell, Emeritus Distinguished Professor in the Dept. of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management at The…

Still Separate & Unequal: Evaluating the Legacy of Brown

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In this webinar from May 17, 2023, the Gault Center kicked off the 70th year of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Nearly 70 years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Specifically, the Court acknowledged that separating children…

Overuse of Psychiatric Medication in the Juvenile Legal & Child Welfare Systems

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A webinar from April 10, 2023 with Dr. Martin Irwin, MD, Clinical Professor at the NYU School of Medicine, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Multiple studies have concluded that children in the juvenile legal system or foster care, many of whom are victims of abuse and trauma, are prescribed psychiatric medication at a rate…

Protecting Youth Wellbeing: The Intersection of Systemic Racism & Overmedication in Juvenile Court

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Webinar provided by the Gault Center on April 25, 2023. This training provided an historical overview on the racialized use of medicine, provider bias, and cultural mistrust, followed by a discussion on practical tools youth defenders can utilize to litigate against medication conditions and/or misdiagnoses of youth in the juvenile legal system. This training built…

Cultivating Caring Communities in Schools: Tools for Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline

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School-based arrests have long made up a substantial number of cases in the juvenile legal system. This is particularly true for Black, Native/Indigenous, and Latino students; immigrant students, students with disabilities, LGBTQ+ students, and other historically marginalized students. Despite significant decreases in the rate of serious crimes and violence on school campuses over the past…

Promoting Adolescent Resilience, Storytelling, & Reform

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In this final session of our 2022-2023 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning, Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative at Georgetown Law, and Mary Ann Scali, Executive Director of the Gault Center, were joined by Clarence Ford, Social Justice and Wellbeing Advisor at the W. Haywood Burns Institute; Prof.…

Advocating for Children & Families in the Era of Mass Incarceration

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Mary Ann Scali, Executive Director of the Gault Center, were joined by Jeannette Bocanegra, Executive Director of Justice for Families (J4F), and Prof. Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss University Professor of Law & Sociology and Raymond Pace &…

The Traumatic Impact of Policing on Youth Health & Wellbeing

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Mary Ann Scali were joined by Dr. Juan Del Toro, researcher in applied developmental psychology and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Dr. Tiffani J. Johnson, Assistant Professor in the…

Humanizing Youth of Color & Challenging Adultification, Transfer, & Severe Sentences

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Mary Ann Scali were joined by Eric Campbell, formerly incarcerated founder of Some People Understand Differently (SPUD), Inc.; Carmen Daugherty, Deputy Executive Director of Advancement Project; and Kristen Rome, Co-Executive Director of Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. This…

Policing by Proxy: Shifting the Public Narrative about Black & Brown Youth

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Ebony Howard, Deputy Director of The Gault Center, were joined by Thomas J. Bahr, Deputy Public Defender at the Office of the San Diego Public Defender, who will discuss the California case In re Edgerrin J.; Dr. Noël…

Closing the School to Prison Pipeline

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, held on August 31, 2022, Prof. Kristin Henning and Ebony Howard, Deputy Director of The Gault Center, were joined by Harold Jordan, Nationwide Education Equity Coordinator at the ACLU of Pennsylvania; Reyna Rollolazo, Community Engagement and Anti-Racism Director at TeamChild; and Amir…

Decriminalizing Adolescent Speech & Contempt of Cop

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Mary Ann Scali, Executive Director of The Gault Center, were joined by Dr. Shameka Stanford, Juvenile Speech-Language Pathologist; and Duci Goncalves, Deputy Chief Counsel of the Youth Advocacy Division at Massachusetts’ Committee for Public Counsel Services. This session…

Decriminalizing Race Pride, Free Speech, & Adolescent Identity Development

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For the July session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series, Prof. Kristin Henning and Mary Ann Scali were joined by Dr. Kristia Wantchekon, Secondary Lecturer of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and incoming Assistant Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University, and Orlando Johnson, Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University…

Decriminalizing Fashion & Culture for Youth of Color

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The April session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series. For this session, held on Monday, April 25, Prof. Kristin Henning and Ebony Howard, Deputy Director of The Gault Center, was joined by Prof. Andrea L. Dennis, Associate Dean for Faculty Development & John Byrd Martin Chair of Law at the University of Georgia School…

Defending Sexual Identity Development & Challenging Sexualized Myths about Youth of Color

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Ebony Howard, Deputy Director of The Gault Center, were joined by Maheen Kaleem, Deputy Director of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, and Brittany Mobley, Deputy Chief of the Juvenile Services Program at DC Public Defender Service. In this…

Decriminalizing Play & Educating Stakeholders on the Value of Play in Healthy Adolescent Development

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In this second session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning was joined by Prof. Harrison P. Pickney of Clemson University’s College of Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences; and Dr. Rasul Mowatt, Department Head of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at North Carolina State University. This session was built…

Reconsidering Decision Making in the Juvenile Court System Through the Lens of our Racial History

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On August 12, 2021, NJDC and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges hosted a discussion with noted professors Kristin Henning of Georgetown Law and Geoff Ward of Washington University in St. Louis, about the historical impact of racism and bias on the juvenile court system and the trauma that flows to youth…

Defending Adolescence for Children of Color

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In the kickoff of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning was joined by Dr. Laurence Steinberg to discuss adolescent development and race. This session was built around the Introduction, Molotov Cocktail or Science Experiment?, and Chapter 1, American Adolescence in Black and White, of Prof. Henning’s book, The Rage…

NJDC virtual hearings & due process presentation

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On May 5, 2021, NJDC presented at an Illinois Summit about our report, Due Process in the Time of COVID. The presentation may be useful to other jurisdictions as they consider continuing to use technology to hold court hearings virtually as the pandemic wanes.

FASD & Youth: What Defenders Need to Know

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On March 24, 2021, NJDC and the Mid-Atlantic Juvenile Defender Center hosted a webinar titled FASD & Youth: What Defenders Need to Know. This video includes information about FASD provided by Dr. Larry Burd. Portions of the webinar addressing defense strategies have been edited out of this public version. Description of the webinar: Approximately five…

Addendum B: Applying Adolescent development throughout the case

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This is the sixth in a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. In this video, Judge Ernestine S. Gray discusses how understanding of the developmental capacities of young people can impact judicial decision-making at every stage of a juvenile case.

Addendum A: Important judicial considerations regarding adolescent development

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This is the sixth in a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. In this video, Judge Karen Ashby reviews how adolescent development plays into considerations of positive youth development, racial justice, and procedural justice in juvenile courts.

Principle 5: Secure and healthy relationships promote adolescent success and positive development

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This is the fifth in a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. In this video, Dr. Antoinette Kavanaugh talks about the things we can do to help young people develop in positive ways.

Principle 3: Adolescents develop at different rates socially, emotionally, physically, & cognitively

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This is the third in a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. In this video, Dr. Antoinette Kavanaugh explains the science behind adolescent development and how it impacts youth decision-making.

Principle 4: Adolescent development & learning are affected by early childhood experiences

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This is the fourth in a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. In this video, Dr. Antoinette Kavanaugh discusses how prior traumatic experiences may influence how young people interact with others and their environment.