Competence
“Do criminal courts meaningfully accommodate psychiatric disability? A review of competency proceedings across the United States suggests not. In competency to stand trial (CST) proceedings, criminal courts offer a narrow vision of psychiatric disability that excludes many defendants. Ultimately, the institutional context of criminal court under-mines even the meager accommodations that the competency framework provides.…
This resource offers a brief overview of how children are transferred or bound over to adult court in Ohio and discusses what is at stake in the case of State v. D.T., 2024-Ohio-4482 (Ohio Ct. App. 2024) pending before the Ohio Supreme Court. The Gault Center filed an amicus in this case here. Oral arguments were…
The Gault Center submitted an amicus brief in the Supreme Court of Ohio on a case involving a young person’s right to appeal a competence and transfer determination in juvenile court after entering a guilty plea in adult court. Outlining procedural justice arguments and the constitutional right to a competency and transfer hearing, the brief…
From the abstract: “This paper explores the inequitable treatment of the Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled and Autistic (IDD/A) population in the criminal justice system. Although progress has been made over the past century with understanding the unique needs of this population, they still face challenges at all stages of the criminal justice system. Behavioral, social…
This memo, filed by youth defenders from the Hamilton County, Ohio public defender office, demands evidentiary competence hearings based on state statutory grounds and constitutional doctrines of fundamental fairness, effective assistance of counsel, and separation of powers. Notably, this memo cites Standard 3.2 of the National Youth Defense System Standards on independence to highlight an…
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…
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…
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…
This article calls for the categorical exclusion of young children from juvenile court jurisdiction as a pathway toward the abolition of the juvenile legal system in its current form. This article highlights the landscape of age-based jurisdictional boundaries across the country: 24 states have no minimum age of arrest and prosecution, while 18 states have…
Courtesy of Dr. Antoinette Kavanaugh
Courtesy of Dr. Antoinette Kavanaugh
I.N. respectfully requests that this Court dismiss the above-captioned matter with prejudice pursuant to the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Maine, on the grounds that the State has violated I.N.’s right to a speedy trial by failing to conduct a competency evaluation within twenty-one days of the Court’s order, as is required by…
Evaluations of juvenile adjudicative competence (AC) are frequently ordered, yet significant gaps remain in the field’s understanding of referred youth. Using a sample of 277 court-ordered evaluations of juvenile AC, this study provides further support for the relationship of age and intelligence with competence, but other factors remain inconsistent. In the current study, developmental immaturity…
Much the impetus for the current debate about bias in psychological testing is based on well-documented, consistent, and substantive differences between IQ scores of Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks in the U.S.A. Various explanations are offered for these differences including the idea that IQ tests are inherently biased against Blacks, Hispanics, and possibly other ethnics groups,…
As part of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change initiative, Larson and Grisso (2011) authored a document entitled Developing Statutes for Competence to Stand Trial in Juvenile Delinquency Proceedings: A Guide for Lawmakers. This guide outlines legal components and best practice recommendations that legislators might consider when creating or revising…
Juvenile competency to stand trial has historically involved the intrinsic abilities of a juvenile to understand and appreciate the nature of the proceeding against the juvenile and the juvenile’s ability to assist in his/her defense and communicate effectively with defense counsel. The literature has not addressed the recursive systemic competency process between the juvenile, defense…
