pdf – Page 37 – The Gault Center

A More Grown-Up Response to Ordinary Adolescent Behaviors: Repealing PINS Laws to Protect and Empower D.C. Youth

Create New Opportunities for “Persons In Need of Supervision” (PINS) to Succeed Without Legal System Intervention

Unshackled: Stories of Redemption Among Serious Youth Offenders

Highlights from Pathways to Desistance: A Longitudinal Study of Serious Adolescent Offenders

Centering Youth Voice in Juvenile Justice Reform: A Brief Summary Report of Youth Experiences

Taking the Next Step in Miranda Evaluations: Considering Racial Trauma and the Impact of Prior Police Contact

Racial Differences in Legal Socialization Models Across Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Examining the Consequences of Dehumanization and Adultification in Justification of Police Use of Force Against Black Girls and Boys

Does “Jamal” Receive a Harsher Sentence Than “James”? First-Name Bias in the Criminal Sentencing of Black Men

Community Crime, Poverty, and Proportion of Black Residents Influence Police Descriptions of Adolescents

No Child Left Confined: Challenging the Digital Convict Lease

This article is a transcript of a lecture given by Professor Chaz P. Arnett at a Symposium hosted by the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law’s Journal of Health Care Law & Policy. Professor Arnett discusses juvenile courts’ increased reliance on electronic monitoring, which he classifies as “e-carceration,” or the “the digital…

Overmedication and Misdiagnoses Guide

Written Testimony of BJ Casey and Leah Somerville to the US Sentencing Commission

Written testimony by BJ Casey, Ph.D. and Leah H. Somerville, PhD submitted to the US Sentencing Commission. The testimony argues that brain and behavioral development continues well into a person’s twenties.

Written Testimony of Elizabeth Cauffman, Ph.D. and Arielle Baskin-Sommers, Ph.D. on Neurobiological Development in Teenagers and Emerging Adults

This written testimony from Elizabeth Cauffman, Ph.D. and Arielle Baskin-Sommers, Ph.D. discusses what developmental science says about the impact of brain development on adolescent risk taking, decision making, and susceptibility to social and peer influence as it relates to a young person’s culpability. The testimony also provides information on diversion and its impact on lower recidivism and improved public safety. Below is an excerpt from…

Advancing Racial Justice Through the Restatement of Children and the Law: The Challenge, the Intent, and the Opportunity

From the Introduction: “Racial inequities are addressed to varying degrees in at least three of the four sections of the Restatement of Children and the Law. This Essay evaluates whether and how well this Restatement advances racial justice and identifies additional opportunities for the ALI to address racial inequities now and in future iterations of the Restatement. The…

U.S. Statement of Interest, Alex A. v. Gov. John Bel Edwards

No. 3:22-cv-00573 (M.D. La. 2023). The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in a civil lawsuit addressing the constitutional rights of youth who had been adjudicated delinquent and transferred to the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s former death row building, known as Angola. In their statement, the United States asserted that youth are particularly…

Changing Course in Youth Detention: Reversing Widening Gaps by Race and Place

The Annie E. Casey Found. (2023). The Annie E. Casey Foundation undertook a three-year analysis from January 2020 to January 2023 of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on juvenile detention rates. The analysis concluded with three main findings: 1) Black youth were ten times more likely to be detained than white youth in 2023;…

National Public Defense Workload Study

Nicholas M. Pace et al., Rand Corp. (2023). This report showcases the results of collaborative research on public defense workloads from the RAND Corporation, the National Center for State Courts, the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense, and the Law Office of Lawyer Hanlon. This research is intended to update…

Indigent Defense Environmental Scan: Identifying Research Needs to Support Fair and Equitable Indigent Defense in the United States

Duren Banks et al., Priority Crim. Just. Needs Initiative (2023). This report details gaps in research around the provision of public defense and provides recommendations for addressing those needs. Researchers completed a comprehensive scan of the current literature around the needs of public defense systems, obtained input from practitioners, and reviewed priorities of federal and…

Indigent Criminal Defense and Commonwealth’s Attorneys: Report to the Governor and the General Assembly of Virginia

Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (2023). This report examines the state of public defense in Virginia, as requested by the state’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Virginia has a hybrid public defense system comprised of either state-funded local public defender offices or private court-appointed defense attorneys compensated by the state. This report finds…

Gideon at Sixty: Advancing the Right to Counsel for Kids in Cuyahoga County

The Wren Collective (2023). This independent report by the Wren Collective examines youth defense appointment practices in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and finds that juvenile court judges are routinely assigning private attorneys over public defenders to represent youth in juvenile court. Specifically, the public defender’s office was appointed to 25% of the juvenile delinquency cases in…

ABA Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System

Am. Bar. Ass’n (2023). The American Bar Association released an updated version of their ten core principles for effective public defense delivery systems. These principles outline best practices for public defense systems and incorporate decades of case law, defense standards, and nationwide rules and practices. The Ten Principles include: 1) the independence of public defense…

Access to Justice Spotlight: Fines & Fees

Off. for Access to Just., U.S. Dep’t of Just. (2023). The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Access to Justice issued this report as a follow up on the department’s Fines and Fees Dear Colleague letter. The report spotlights jurisdictions that have eliminated fines and fees for youth and adults through various mechanisms and highlights…

Engaging Black 2SLGBTQIA+ Youth in Advocacy

Juvenile Court Statistics 2021

In January 2024, the National Center for Juvenile Justice released their annual report detailing data trends in juvenile courts across the country from 2005 to 2021. This report provides a national snapshot of various trends in delinquency cases, including key demographic patterns across age, gender, and race at various stages of case processing. Notably, in…