Quality of Representation
On December 17, 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice entered into a settlement agreement with Shelby County and the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County in Tennessee following their investigation into the juvenile court system. The settlement agreement includes remedial measures to align the following practices with the U.S. Constitution: probable cause determinations, notice…
Coloradans have an abiding interest in ensuring that the justice system is not the dumping ground for failing schools, mental health systems, or parents who want the state to control their children. The justice system should be reserved for those youth who must be there. When youth do have the misfortune of coming into contact…
This amicus brief by Loyola Civitas ChildLaw Center, Juvenile Law Center, The Gault Center, and others argues there is a per se conflict of interest when a child’s defense attorney also acts as their guardian ad litem. The brief argues the guardian ad litem’s ethical and legal obligation to act in the child’s “best interest”…
This amicus brief by Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, Juvenile Law Center, and others argues that a juvenile court adjudication should not be used to enhance a sentence in adult court under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), because a juvenile court adjudication lacks the same reliability as a criminal conviction, and…
In West Virginia, full-time public defenders work for the Public Defender Corporation, established by W.Va. Code 29-21-1, et seq. By statute, all indigent defense work is to be assigned to public defender offices except for conflicts and case overloads. However, public defender offices exist in only 23 of 55 counties (18 of 31 Judicial Circuits)…
Children have a clearly established constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel in delinquency cases and juvenile defenders are vital to protect and enforce that right. In addition, skilled juvenile defenders can play an important role in opening doors to positive opportunities and helping children become productive and contributing members of society. As stated…
This amicus brief prepared by The Gault Center and Juvenile Law Center argues that Louisiana must grant jury trials in juvenile court given the persistent deficiencies in Louisiana’s juvenile legal system including the punitive nature of consequences youth face and the dire and harmful conditions of the state’s jails. Furthermore, amici argue there is a…
In 1967, in In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 (1967), the United States Supreme Court extended the right to counsel to young people accused of crimes, explaining that youth need “the guiding hand of counsel” to respond to the charges leveled against them and to navigate the complicated justice system. This assessment of access to…
This amicus brief by Southern Poverty Law Center, The Gault Center, and others argues Sherri Jefferson, a youth defense attorney in Georgia, must have her contempt conviction overturned after she professionally and zealously advocated on behalf of her young client in an adjudication in juvenile court. Amici argue the Supreme Court clearly held that children…
The Mississippi assessment of access to counsel and quality of representation in youth court proceedings is part of a national effort to address deficiencies and highlight strengths in juvenile indigent defense practices. Forty years after the United States Supreme Court ruled in In re Gault that children in the delinquency system have a right to…
From the inception of the world’s first juvenile court over 100 years ago, the State of Illinois has long led the way in the creation of a fair and equitable juvenile justice system for children. Illinois has historically been a place where new ideas and strategies that impact children and families have been born, tested…
From the introduction: “This brief tells the story of how the four Models for Change states—Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana, and Washington—are already moving to reform and reshape their own state juvenile justice systems. These states have demonstrated strong leadership in juvenile justice policy, value collaboration and engagement, and because of their efforts, have changed the political…
The information in this report was collected by a team of experts from across the country and Florida, with the guidance of a dedicated advisory board of Florida stakeholders and the support of the Florida Supreme Court, Florida Bar Association, Florida Public Defender’s Association and the elected Public Defenders. Observers traveled to 10 of Florida’s…
This assessment of access to counsel and quality of representation for children in Indiana is part of a nationwide effort to address deficiencies and identify strengths in juvenile indigent defense practices. More than thirty-five years after the United States Supreme Court decided in In re Gault that children have a constitutional right to counsel, the…
In 1995, a national assessment of the legal representation of children in delinquency proceedings was conducted by the American Bar Association (ABA) Juvenile Justice Center, Youth Law Center (YLC) and Juvenile Law Center (JLC). The findings—that indigent juvenile defense was woefully inadequate—were published in A Call for Justice: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and…
This assessment of access to counsel and quality of representation received by children in the State of Maryland is part of a nationwide effort to address deficiencies and identify strengths in juvenile indigent defense practices. More than thirty-five years after the United States Supreme Court decided that children have a constitutional right to counsel, the…
This study reveals that Maine’s juvenile justice system depends upon the perseverance of dedicated, but under-resourced advocates who rely on luck in locating and providing necessary services for the youth they represent. Maine cannot meet the promise of rehabilitation set forth in its juvenile code, nor can Maine guarantee the highest quality juvenile defense system…
In 2002, the Central Juvenile Defender Center, through the Children’s Law Center, Inc. in Covington, Kentucky, in conjunction with the ABA National Juvenile Defender Center and the Juvenile Justice Coalition, Inc. embarked upon a statewide study of Ohio’s indigent juvenile defense system. The study included extensive surveying of judges, magistrates and defense attorneys, and detention…
The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the quality of counsel defending children in Washington’s juvenile courts. Stakeholders from across the state were invited to participate in defining the objectives of WJJAP, including judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, bar association leaders, university professors, social scientists, child welfare providers, civil legal service attorneys and others…
This assessment of access to counsel and quality of representation received by children in the State of Montana is part of a nationwide effort to address deficiencies and identify strengths in juvenile indigent defense practices. More than thirty-five years after the United States Supreme Court decided that children have a constitutional right to counsel, the…
This assessment of access to counsel and quality of representation that children receive in delinquency proceedings in the State of North Carolina is part of a nationwide effort to address deficiencies and identify strengths in juvenile indigent defense practices. Over thirty-five years after the United States Supreme Court decided that children have a constitutional right…
In June 2001, the assessment of Louisiana’s youth defense delivery system was released, revealing numerous concerning findings, including: An extremely high incidence of waiver of counsel among children, many of whom waive without speaking to a lawyer or understanding the critical consequences of their decision. An extremely high use of pleas to handle cases of…
From the introduction: “In this Pathway we explore why youth of color are overrepresented in the juvenile detention system and review what has been done in some sites to reduce the number of minority youth in detention. Dealing with disparity in the use of detention has been one of the most challenging pieces of the…
This assessment of access to counsel and quality of representation that children receive in delinquency proceedings in the Commonwealth of Virginia is part of a nationwide effort to address deficiencies and identify strengths in juvenile indigent defense practices. Thirty-five years after the United States Supreme Court decided that children have a constitutional right to counsel,…
This reassessment of access to counsel and quality of representation in Kentucky delinquency proceedings is part of a local and national movement to continually review indigent defense delivery systems and evaluate how effectively attorneys in juvenile court are fulfilling constitutional and statutory obligations to their clients. This study is designed to provide broad information about…
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