JLC Celebrates 40 Years of Gault
December 5, 2007
On November 7th JLC joined others to solidify the legacy of an important United States Supreme Court case, In re Gault. JLC participated in the unveiling of two murals at Philadelphia Family Court and in co-sponsoring a Symposium at the
National Constitution Center
In re Gault was the 1967 Supreme Court case that declared children to be "persons" under the 14th Amendment and gave them a constitutional right to counsel at delinquency trials. It was that case that led, eight years later, to the creation of Juvenile Law Center. On November 7, 2007, Gerald Gault (now in his late 50's, retired from the army, and working out west) and his extended family joined us for two anniversary events.
The Gault "rights and responsibilities" murals were unveiled at Philadelphia Family Court. The murals, created by Eric Okdeh of the
Mural Arts Program, now hang in two corridors that bisect the first floor of the building. They are the first murals to be unveiled and installed in the Family Court Building since the New Deal, when WPA artists painted murals (located behind the judges' benches in the first floor courtrooms) that were morality tales.
The subject of the murals–rights and responsibilities–originated from the work of JLC Staff Attorneys Jessica Feierman and Riya Shah, and Case Manager-Paralegal Joanna Darcus, who developed a rights and responsibilities curriculum which they then delivered to delinquent youth in residential placement and youth awaiting trial in the adult criminal justice system. Muralist Eric Okdeh attended many of these sessions and listened to JLC's discussions and conversations with the youth. He used those conversations to turn their expressed feelings about youth's "rights and responsibilities" into images.
In conjunction with the mural dedication, the Defender Association of Philadelphia gave its first Gault Award, presented by Gerald Gault, to Bill Bachman. Bachman is a distinguished attorney in the Juvenile Unit at the Defender Association. Other speakers included Kevin Dougherty, Administrative Judge of Philadelphia's Family Court; Jane Golden, head of the Mural Arts Program; Patti Puritz, Executive Director of the National Juvenile Defender Center; and JLC's Legal Director, Marsha Levick.
After the unveiling at Family Court, the National Constitution Center and Juvenile Law Center sponsored a forum at the National Constitution Center on the impact of In re Gault. JLC Senior Attorney
Laval Miller-Wilson was on the panel, which was moderated by JoAnne Epps, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at Temple Law School. Gerald Gault was on the panel, as was one of JLC's former clients, along with Columbia Law Professor Elizabeth Scott. Professor Scott is co-author, with JLC Board member Larry Steinberg, of a book on adolescent development and juvenile justice, to be published in 2008. A reception prior to the forum was underwritten by Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin. A podcast of the event will be posted on the National Constitution Center's website.
