Lived Experience Office Hours (Juvenile Justice Advocates of California)
Sample Motion for Release from Secure Detention Using the JJDPA
A sample motion asking the court to release a young person charged with handgun or firearm possession from secure detention pursuant to the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). The motion argues the young person must be released because: 1) Possession of a handgun or firearm is a status offense since it is only unlawful…
Read MoreMessaging Memo: Responding to Harmful Youth Justice Policies
This memo from Fenton Communications Agency provides youth advocates with messaging strategies to respond to the D.C. Crimes Act and the Juvenile Sentencing Reform Act pending in Congress. The memo includes succinct responses to questions posed about public safety, youth crime, and transfer laws. The memo also provides suggested talking points on tone and relevant…
Read MoreDC Youth in Adult Courts
This report highlights D.C. transfer laws and discusses the current U.S. Attorney’s argument that the District of Columbia should amend its law to transfer more young people to to adult court. The report compares D.C.’s transfer law to transfer laws across the country and highlights decades of research that has concluded transfer laws do not…
Read MoreTrump’s Youth Justice Agenda Will Make Us Less Safe
Former Secretary of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, Vinny Schiraldi, wrote this op-ed, discussing President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Washington D.C. and the District’s intentions to repeal lower the age for trying children as adults to 12 in the Youth Rehabilitation Act. The op-ed details Vinny’s reflections and observations during his…
Read MoreWhat is Bindover or Transfer? In Re D.T., Case No. 2024-1276 (Ohio)
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…
Read MoreKeeping the Promise of Juvenile Court: The Failed Experiment of Trying and Sentencing Children in Adult Court in Illinois
This issue brief by the Juvenile Justice Initiative provides an overview of transfer laws in Illinois. Additionally, the brief reviews demographic data on young people who are being tried as adults and identifies the ways that transfer fails children and public safety in the state of Illinois. The brief ends by calling for a return…
Read MoreTalking About Young People in a Time of Manufactured Controversy
This article featured on the Frameworks Institute website offers research-based communication strategies for combating the manufactured controversy of a “crime emergency” caused by adolescents in Washington D.C. The article provides a topline nonpartisan message for responding to the relentless, toxic messaging around adolescent crime and outlines five framing recommendations for discussing the harmful policies being…
Read MoreYouth Justice in the United States
This report from the National Center for Youth Law examines the emerging policies across the United States that are likely to reverse the downward trend of youth incarceration rates.
Read MoreOpinion: Trump is stoking fears about D.C.’s crime but the city is safer than it’s been in decades.
Georgetown University Law Center Associate Professor Eduardo Ferrer penned this op-Ed on regarding the narrative that there is a “rise” in violent crime in D.C. This narrative is being used to justify regressive tough-on-crime policies that do not improve public safety. Professor Ferrer discusses the perception versus the reality of crime statistics and data, including…
Read MoreKids You Throw Away: New Jersey’s Indiscriminate Prosecution of Children as Adults
Human Rights Watch conducted a study on New Jersey’s waiver mechanisms, finding that the state is effectively operating a prosecutorial waiver system that is disproportionately harming Black and Latine youth, sidelining judicial oversight, and prioritizing punishment over treatment. This report offers recommendations for a wide range of system professionals to ultimately end the prosecution of…
Read MoreCommunities United for Restorative Youth Justice Impact Report 2024
This 2024 Impact report from Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) focuses on the organization’s accomplishments, including the opening of CURYJ’s Youth Power Zone, a physical space that provides community-led, community-owned direct-service programming, advocacy and culturally-rooted healing. CURYJ also highlights the acquisition of a second physical space for community peace, healing, and resilience. Further,…
Read MoreDigitizing the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Pasco County’s At-Risk Youth Program
This research report by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund provides an in-depth overview of the “At-Risk Youth Program” created by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa Bay, Florida. The Pasco County sheriff’s office relied on a “rudimentary, person-based predictive policing system” based on inherently biased criteria to identify young people who were “destined to…
Read MoreDangerous Data: What Communities Should Know about Artificial Intelligence, the School-to-Prison Pipeline, and School Surveillance
This report reviews the expanding infrastructure of police surveillance in public schools and highlights the failure of AI technologies and digital surveillance in making schools safer. Further, the report discusses the harms these technologies may cause to Black and Latine youth and youth from other historically vulnerable communities. Calling on youth justice advocates, youth leaders,…
Read MoreDigital Dystopia: The Danger in Buying What the EdTech Surveillance Industry is Selling
This research report by the ACLU provides an overview of surveillance technology (“EdTech Surveillance”) industry in K-12 schools and critically explores the industry’s claims, the efficacy of the products, and their impacts on students and schools. The report also provides recommendations for best protecting students and promoting better surveillance technology decision-making among elected officials, school…
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