New law gives juvenile offenders in Washington state same rights to a lawyer that adults have

Defendants who are 18 years old and younger will have the same access to legal counsel as adults in Washington, starting next January. That new law trails another juvenile justice reform, which took effect on July 25, aimed at trimming the number of youth in foster care who wind up in juvenile detention. The latter aims to expand the number of community-based endeavors offering trauma-informed rehabilitative care that is culturally competent and focused on racial equity among youth in the justice system. Currently those less restrictive, community placements are available to 25% of juveniles in the state, according to legislators who drafted the measure. The initiative expanding juveniles’ access to lawyers mandates that juveniles can phone, videoconference or talk in person with a lawyer before waiving any constitutional rights, if a law enforcement officer, among other things:

Questions a youth after advising that person of rights granted under the landmark Miranda ruling.

Historic marquee of the Paramount Theater on Market Street in Newark, New Jersey.

Opinion: Trauma for Youth Is Everywhere … But We Can Heal It in Newark

On a sunny afternoon in 2006, I was driving my four sons to a cookout in Newark, N.J., my hometown.
We had stopped at an intersection when a group of teenagers spilled into the street behind us. They were beating another young man, and it wasn’t a game. My sons started yelling, asking what was happening.

school-to-prison pipeline: photo illustration of hands clutching cell bars made of pencils with brick background

Florida Has Work to Do to Treat African American Youth Fairly

In the early 2000s I had the privilege to serve as the administrator of the Pinellas and Pasco counties Juvenile Assessment Centers. For those of you not familiar with the JACs, their purpose is to serve as a one-stop shop for all juvenile services. The JACs provide law enforcement with a central point of contact for juveniles who have been arrested. 

whiteness: Close-up of hands of different races doing fist bump.

How White Service Providers Can ‘Do the Work’ With People of Color

I am neither a man nor a person of color, but this past year I’ve worked in a program for men of color. I was a case manager with Make It Happen, a Brooklyn-based therapeutic services program for young men of color who have been impacted by violence.

Netflix: 5 young men with arms around each other in front of curtain.

Netflix Show an Inside Look at Power of Prosecutors, Media in Youth Justice Cases

Netflix’s highly anticipated limited series, Ava DuVernay's "When They See Us" is now out. It chronicles the story of the infamous Central Park Five case: how five teenage boys of color from Harlem were wrongly convicted of the rape of a white woman in 1989 and their 25-year fight for justice.

diversion: Melancholy teens sit against wall.

Virginia Suburb Shows That Diversion, Victim-centered Agreements Work

Over the last several years, the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court (JDRDC) of Fairfax County, Va., has been working on transformative efforts around juvenile justice in an effort to keep low-risk youth from entering the system and address disparities for youth of color. One large area targeted by these efforts was the diversion programming and Juvenile Intake Office.