Resource Library
This article is a transcript of a lecture given by Professor Chaz P. Arnett at a Symposium hosted by the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law’s Journal of Health Care Law & Policy. Professor Arnett discusses juvenile courts’ increased reliance on electronic monitoring, which he classifies as “e-carceration,” or the “the digital…
No. 3:22-cv-00573 (M.D. La. 2023). The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in a civil lawsuit addressing the constitutional rights of youth who had been adjudicated delinquent and transferred to the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s former death row building, known as Angola. In their statement, the United States asserted that youth are particularly…
The Annie E. Casey Found. (2023). The Annie E. Casey Foundation undertook a three-year analysis from January 2020 to January 2023 of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on juvenile detention rates. The analysis concluded with three main findings: 1) Black youth were ten times more likely to be detained than white youth in 2023;…
Nicholas M. Pace et al., Rand Corp. (2023). This report showcases the results of collaborative research on public defense workloads from the RAND Corporation, the National Center for State Courts, the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense, and the Law Office of Lawyer Hanlon. This research is intended to update…
Duren Banks et al., Priority Crim. Just. Needs Initiative (2023). This report details gaps in research around the provision of public defense and provides recommendations for addressing those needs. Researchers completed a comprehensive scan of the current literature around the needs of public defense systems, obtained input from practitioners, and reviewed priorities of federal and…
Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (2023). This report examines the state of public defense in Virginia, as requested by the state’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Virginia has a hybrid public defense system comprised of either state-funded local public defender offices or private court-appointed defense attorneys compensated by the state. This report finds…
The Wren Collective (2023). This independent report by the Wren Collective examines youth defense appointment practices in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and finds that juvenile court judges are routinely assigning private attorneys over public defenders to represent youth in juvenile court. Specifically, the public defender’s office was appointed to 25% of the juvenile delinquency cases in…
Am. Bar. Ass’n (2023). The American Bar Association released an updated version of their ten core principles for effective public defense delivery systems. These principles outline best practices for public defense systems and incorporate decades of case law, defense standards, and nationwide rules and practices. The Ten Principles include: 1) the independence of public defense…
Off. for Access to Just., U.S. Dep’t of Just. (2023). The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Access to Justice issued this report as a follow up on the department’s Fines and Fees Dear Colleague letter. The report spotlights jurisdictions that have eliminated fines and fees for youth and adults through various mechanisms and highlights…
In January 2024, the National Center for Juvenile Justice released their annual report detailing data trends in juvenile courts across the country from 2005 to 2021. This report provides a national snapshot of various trends in delinquency cases, including key demographic patterns across age, gender, and race at various stages of case processing. Notably, in…
This guide contains the following resources to help interested students and graduates with their career search in the youth defense field: Overview of the Juvenile Legal Process Juvenile Court Terminology Youth Defense Policy and Practice Clinical Programs Public Interest Career Fairs Debt Management and Summer Funding Opportunities Project-Based, Post-Graduate Fellowships Youth Defense Policy and Practice…
Outlines steps that states must take to comply with the minimum requirements of the U.S. Constitution to protect the rights of youth facing deprivations of liberty.
