News & Blog Posts
We are delighted to share Part II of our Revolutionizing Probation series aimed at moving probation from surveillance to support for all youth. Please check out our Toolkit, Under These Conditions: Accountability Should Be Possible. Our Toolkit includes: Our Toolkit was also recently covered by The Imprint. This Toolkit is offered as part of the Juvenile Probation Accountability…
On July 24, 2026, the Governor of Michigan signed into law landmark legislation to ensure that all youth in the state have access to qualified youth defense counsel. This law gives the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission the authority to establish a statewide youth defense system, which will include youth defense standards, oversight, quality improvement, and support…
Campaign Goal: To establish a universal juvenile probation order with three clear, developmentally appropriate conditions that all young people can understand, complete, and succeed under. Campaign Title: Under These Conditions Campaign Taglines: Campaign Summary: The Juvenile Probation Accountability Coalition (JPAC) seeks to transform how the nation understands juvenile probation and accountability. For decades, juvenile probation…
The Gault Center has been regularly updating our Resource Library, where you will find a broad range of youth defense resources to enhance your practice and advocacy. Below are some notable resources from the past few months that may be of interest to youth defense advocates. Please note that some of these resources are only…
Executive Director Mary Ann Scali and Senior Youth Defense Counsel Sarah Johnson were interviewed by Stateline regarding the Youth Justice Landscape, and transfer policies across the country. From the Article: “’Transfer of youth to adult court is bad public policy,’ said Mary Ann Scali, the executive director of The Gault Center, a national organization that…
The Gault Center’s Executive Director Mary Ann Scali joined Executive Director John A. Tuell from the National Resource Center for the Transformation of Youth Justice in their podcast, “Youth Justice Transformation in Action.” Mary Ann shared the Gault Center’s vision for the 60th Anniversary of the In re Gault decision, what it means to be…
In this new opinion piece published by The Detroit News (full article requires subscription), MCYJ Executive Director Jason Smith, Georgetown Law’s Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative’s Director Kristin Henning and The Gault Center’s Executive Director Mary Ann Scali argue for solutions that provide young people with a voice in shaping the spaces they want to…
HyeJi Kim, at the Gault Center, wrote an essay on the critical role of youth defenders in building toward an interdependent future, where all children and youth are free to thrive. This essay is an ode to the youth defense community and offers a widened lens of how our work can fit into a broader…
Executive Director Mary Ann Scali was interviewed by USA Today regarding conditions of confinement concerns at Ohio’s Indian River Juvenile Correctional Facility. Staffing shortages, extensive use of solitary confinement, and staff conducting rounds via video instead of in person are a just a few of the issues that have been reported by young people and…
The Gault Center has been regularly updating our Resource Library, where you will find a broad range of youth defense resources to enhance your practice and advocacy. Below are some notable publications from the past few months that may be of interest to youth defense advocates. Please note that some of these resources are only…
We are delighted to share Part I of our new report and executive summary, created in partnership with Youth Empowerment for Advancement Hangout (YEAH Philly), as part of our Juvenile Probation Accountability Coalition (JPAC). Part I of our report summarizes youth perspectives on juvenile probation based on 25 interviews with youth across the country who experienced…
The Gault Center is so grateful to partner with Players Coalition to strengthen youth rights in Maryland! Players Coalition “exists to end social injustices and racial inequality so future generations have the opportunity to thrive without barriers.” Players Coalition has been supporting youth justice advocacy since 2018. Please see this post from Players Coalition supporting…
In 2020, the Gault Center was invited by the Kansas Supreme Court to conduct a Statewide Assessment of its youth defense delivery system. Since that time, the Gault Center has been working with partners in Kansas to build a statewide Youth Defense System, and in 2025, released a five-year follow-up assessment in partnership with Progeny…
We are excited to introduce the 2026 Ambassadors for Racial Justice (ARJ). During the year-long program the Gault Center and Georgetown Juvenile Justice Initiative partner with a cohort of 10 youth defenders selected as Ambassadors for Racial Justice to lead and develop strategies to combat racial inequities in their respective jurisdictions and nationally. Ambassadors participate in guided discussions, webinars,…
The Gault Center and Youth Empowerment for Advancement Hangout (YEAH Philly) are partnering together to launch the Juvenile Probation Accountability Coalition (JPAC). JPAC will focus on exposing the harms of juvenile probation, amplifying alternative models, and advancing local policies and practices that move us beyond punishment-based juvenile probation. Our aim is to create a national…
The Gault Center has been regularly updating our Resource Library, where you will find up-to-date youth defense resources to enhance your practice and advocacy. In this post, our summer 2025 update, you will find some notable publications from the past couple of months that may be of interest to youth defense advocates.
The Gault Center has been regularly updating our Resource Library, where you will find up-to-date youth defense resources to enhance your practice and advocacy. In this post, our summer 2025 update, you will find some notable publications from the past couple of months that may be of interest to youth defense advocates.
The Gault Center has been regularly updating our Resource Library, where you will find up-to-date youth defense resources to enhance your practice and advocacy. In this post, our spring 2025 update, you will find some notable publications from the past couple of months that may be of interest to youth defense advocates.
The Gault Center has been regularly updating our Resource Library, where you will find up-to-date youth defense resources to enhance your practice and advocacy. In this post, our winter 2025 update, you will find some notable publications from the past couple of months that may be of interest to youth defense advocates.
The Gault Center has been regularly updating our Resource Library, where you will find up-to-date youth defense resources to enhance your practice and advocacy. In this post are some notable publications from the past couple of months that may be of interest to youth defense advocates.
The Gault Center has been regularly updating our Resource Library, where you will find up-to-date youth defense resources to enhance your practice and advocacy. In this post are some notable publications from the past couple of months that may be of interest to youth defense advocates.
The Gault Center has been regularly updating our Resource Library, where you will find up-to-date youth defense resources to enhance your practice and advocacy. In this post are some notable publications from the past couple of months that may be of interest to youth defense advocates.
A specialized corps of zealous youth defenders can unlock young people’s constitutional rights and wield the power to challenge and dismantle institutionalized oppression. For youth defenders to effectively do this work, states must invest in well-resourced youth defense delivery systems to comply with their constitutional mandates. The National Youth Defense System Standards outline steps states must take to satisfy the minimum requirements of the U.S. Constitution to fully safeguard the rights of youth in the juvenile legal system.
Over the past few months, we’ve been rebuilding our resource library to make it easier for defenders to find what they are looking for in our library. We have now finished our rebuild, and we are happy to announce that the new Resource Library is now live!
by Kristina “KK” Kersey, Sr. Youth Defense Counsel We broadcast Summit from Puerto Rico so we could dance bombas, drink pina coladas, and revolutionize youth defense, and I can confirm we did all of the above. If you missed Summit, well, you missed a lot. Please make better life choices next year. But the…
