Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/juvenile-indigent-defense/)
Speaking for the Children: A Hard Look at the State of Juvenile Defense Across the U.S.
In the U.S., young people in trouble with the law have the right to quality legal counsel, so why is the reality playing out unequally across the country? This series of articles from JJIE looks at juvenile public defense – when it works, and why it doesn’t – and includes stories from youth and families navigating the system with and without legal representation.
In all but 10 states, the families of children charged with crimes can be assessed fees to use attorneys appointed to represent them or billed for the cost of that representation, according to a new report.
Many drug laws have punishment lengths that do not fit the crime, some experts are saying.
Although Daryl was only 15 years old at the time of his arrest, he was charged and tried as an adult.
A foundation has released an app aimed at encouraging more juveniles to seek assistance expunging their arrest and court records.
An interview with Adam Foss, a juvenile prosecutor with the Suffolk county district attorney’s office in Boston.
As a Public defender with the Legal Aid Society’s Adolescent Intervention and Diversion Project, Donna Henken works with 13- to 15-year-olds charged with felony crimes. These adolescents are known as juvenile offenders and they are tried in adult criminal court rather than family court. Henken’s clients struggle with the same issues as juveniles in the family court system. According to the Legal Aid Society, about 20 percent of these youth have experience with the foster care system. Almost two-thirds have special-education needs and about 25 percent of them have significant mental health issues that require ongoing care.
In just one day spent in the juvenile court, orders of protection are issued, as well as plenty of warrants for defendants who fail to show up.
Public defender Drayton refuses to view his young indigent clients as “the problem” -- rather, he believes their actions are symptomatic of a much larger issue within many U.S. communities.
To provide insight into the shadowy world of juvenile public defense, JJIE spent a day trailing juvenile public defender Pinkney at the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center, atop a hill in this city in the East Bay, just south of Oakland.
A single phone call made from a trailer home in rural Arizona, where 15-year-old Gerald “Jerry” Gault lived with his family, wound up indelibly altering the landscape of juvenile justice in America.