This report details the results of the first-ever state-wide Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) survey administered to people currently incarcerated for crimes they committed as children (under eighteen). The trauma measured from ACEs surveys include physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; physical and emotional neglect; separation from parents; mental illness or substance abuse in the home; parent…
Abstract: “The impact of immigration policies on Latinx/é mixed-status families and their children is undeniable. Changes in immigration policy, focused on increased deportation enforcement, within the last three decades have led to an increased fear of deportation and unique circumstances mixed-status families must navigate. These circumstances, combined with fear of deportation, have had deleterious effects…
On October 24, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a Statement of Interest in a federal class action lawsuit challenging conditions of confinement at the Mary Davis Detention Home in Galesburg, Illinois. The DOJ asserted, “The federal government, too, has repeatedly recognized that children are developmentally and constitutionally different than adults and that excessive…
A sample disposition and mitigation memorandum filed in a juvenile court in Ohio.
This resource was created as part of the 2022 Racial Justice Training Series, co-hosted with the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative. Advocates and experts gathered each month to discuss a chapter of Prof. Kristin Henning’s Book The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth. Watch recordings of the monthly webinars and see other…
From the abstract: “South Dakota, like many other states, allows young children to be introduced to the criminal justice system at a very young age. Although South Dakota originally focused on managing children’s misbehavior, the law has evolved in a way that punishes kids for being kids. Despite recent reforms to handle juvenile delinquency in…
This research article explores the history of girls prosecuted as adults in courts across the United States. It explores the effects of childhood trauma and victimization on brain and physical development and the connection to involvement in the criminal legal system as children. The article describes the results of a survey of young women who…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
From the introduction: “In this chapter, I consider the reciprocal effect of Black girls living within spaces and environments influenced by structural racism who are subjected to abuse at higher rates. I argue that there is a uniquely gendered and raced pipeline for these girls that warrants closer inspection. Here, I describe the pipeline that…
Abstract: “While there has been momentum at both the federal and state levels to curtail extreme punishments for justice-involved juveniles (The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, 2023), 22 states continue to permit the sentence of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP). Pennsylvania is among them. This essay focuses on judicial rationale in five JLWOP re-sentencing cases in…
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…
This paper is part of the Series on Learning from Civil Rights Lawsuits from the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse and focuses on parole review procedures for individuals serving long sentences for crimes committed under age 18, discusses constitutional dimensions of parole review for this group, and proposes model policies supporting a meaningful opportunities for release. From the Executive Summary: “In recent years, people serving…
This infographic details statistics on the overrepresentation of Native and Indigenous communities in the criminal legal system, noting in particular that the incarceration rate of American Indian/Alaska Native communities increased 60 percent from 1990 to 2020. It cautions that current data collection practices on Native and Indigenous communities are often incomplete and inaccurate due to…
