The juvenile legal system incarcerates Black youth four times more frequently than white youth, Native/Indigenous youth three times as frequently, and Latino/a youth almost twice as frequently.

Work well done by The Gault Center and Open City Advocates! Their new #youthjustice report discusses the importance of post-sentencing legal representation to protect youth rights and support better outcomes for justice-impacted young people. buff.ly/3xGRiQC

“The juvenile justice system has nothing to do with the juvenile. It has everything to do with getting money off of the parent.”
indystar.com/story/news/inv…

'The only outcome of putting any young person – much less a 10-year-old – in the criminal legal system is further trauma and exacerbating the very issues underlying the misconduct. And these results inevitably erode the safety of our communities.'
usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

Here's some great work from our friends at Open City Advocates and @gaultcenter calling for a universal right to representation throughout a child's commitment. defendyouthrights.org/document/a-cal…

All states keep kids under their surveillance & authority after disposition (the youth “sentencing” hearing). This post-disposition phase can determine a young person's rights, wellbeing, & future outcomes. Yet this is when a young person has the least access to counsel!

'Most crimes committed by young people in Maryland, as in the rest of the nation, remain below pre-pandemic levels and very far from the peaks of the early 1990s.'
baltimoresun.com/2024/04/09/gov…

'If we really want to reduce crime, Iet’s invest in children, families, schools, and communities instead of criminalizing teenagers and their fashion.'

Kristin Henning
teenvogue.com/story/ski-mask…

'They have to shuffle, they can't walk normally. They always leave these red marks and that's because they're really heavy. You can just tell that they're like dragging them down.'
newsleader.com/story/news/loc…

Interview: The Executive Director of The The Gault Center answers questions on:
🔹The current landscape of youth rights and justice in the US.
🔹The efforts of The Gault Center to ensure children’s lawyers are specialized and states strengthen youth defense.
oijj.org/en/news-and-ev…

'Our vision for this work is to cultivate a world where youth are free from systemic injustice and free to shape their own future.'

Thank you International Juvenile Justice Observatory!
oijj.org/en/news-and-ev…

“There’s harm that is happening. There are clear winners and losers. The assigned counsel are winning and the kids are losing.”
themarshallproject.org/2024/03/22/kid…

'A Baltimore County judge said a defendant found to pose a 'low to moderate risk of reoffending' should stay in the adult court largely because he missed a lot of school.'
apmreports.org/story/2024/03/…

'Tennessee’s youth justice crisis has earned national media attention, but those problems aren’t about the youth the system is designed to serve; they’re about the adults who failed them.'
commercialappeal.com/story/opinion/…