John Lash

OP-ED: The Kid Brain and the Adult Criminal Justice System

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was 19 when he and his brother, aged 26, allegedly carried out the Boston Marathon Bombing and a slew of other crimes. Dzhokhar was seriously wounded in a subsequent gunfight, and his brother was killed. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced last week that the federal government will seek the death penalty in the case. As JJIE contributor Tamar Birckhead points out in an interview on CBS News' Crimesider, the decision to pursue the death penalty is problematic given Tsarnaev’s youth. “The younger you are, the less culpable you are for your crimes,” Birckhead said.

Illinois Riddled With Issues of Juvenile Access to Counsel, Fair Representation

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CHICAGO — In 2007, Northwestern University Law School’s Children and Family Justice Center and the National Juvenile Defender Center collaborated to identify key issues in Illinois with juvenile access to counsel and representation in proceedings. Seven years later, it is still unclear whether the state has found solutions to any of those problems. Rather, Illinois has found itself riddled with additional challenges as its juvenile prisons came under fire for numerous reports of sexual assault.

“I think it’s hard to bring [this study] up to date because I don’t know that anyone’s followed up,” said Julie Biehl, director at the Children and Family Justice Center. The report’s major findings included untimely appointment of counsel and pressure for children to plea guilty without complete understanding of the consequences. Many of the issues correlated with the volume of cases despite inadequate number of public defenders available for them. “Public defender offices are always underresourced,” said Anne Helms, pro bono counsel with law firm DLA Piper.

The JJIE Interview: Bart Lubow, the Man Behind JDAI

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More than two decades ago, when the Annie E. Casey Foundation began its groundbreaking Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), the notion that the juvenile justice system could and should reduce its reliance on detention was nothing short of revolutionary. Bart Lubow, director of the Juvenile Justice Strategy Group at Casey, designed and managed JDAI, which began in 1992. Lubow is retiring as of June 30, but he will continue to work with the foundation as a consultant and says he plans to do a lot of writing and speaking. JJIE asked Lubow, 66, to talk about his tenure and legacy at Casey, particularly JDAI, the nation’s most widely replicated juvenile reform effort, now operating at more than 250 sites in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Edited excerpts of the interview follow.

[PHOTOS] Hurting in Harlem

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Photographs inside the Harlem housing projects where police arrested 100 people this morning in the largest gang raid in NYC history.