Juvenile Justice
Each year two million young people are arrested in the United States. JLC approaches all aspects of youth involvement in the justice system from a holistic point of view; these children are not just delinquents, they are young people who deserve the opportunity to grow and develop, to obtain an education and acquire job skills and to return to and advance in their communities. JLC works to ensure that the systems young people come into contact with, whether juvenile courts or adult courts, juvenile detention facilities or adult prisons, disciplinary or regular schools, serve them in a manner which will provide the best possible outcomes. JLC employs the best research available on adolescent development to reform policies and improve practices in systems that serve juvenile offenders. JLC’s goal is the establishment and promotion of fair, effective, rational and developmentally appropriate juvenile justice systems and the fair and effective treatment of juveniles in the adult criminal justice system.
Policies of Interest to JLC
News
Our Publications
Juvenile Records Expungement
Pennsylvania: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings
Our Projects
Creating successful and replicable models of juvenile justice system reform.
Our Litigation
JLC files amicus briefs on behalf of a child soldier accused of war crimes, arguing that the Military Commissions Act was not intended to have jurisdiction over juveniles.
JLC’s brief asks the court to recognize a youth’s constitutional right to a jury trial when he faces public sex offender registration upon conviction of sex offenses under Kansas’ juvenile court statute.
JLC briefed the issue of constitutionality of a state certification statute that requires juveniles, in violation of their right to due process and against self-incrimination, to admit guilt in order to rebut the presumption of certification to adult court.
JLC briefed whether using delinquency adjudications to enhance an adult criminal sentence violates U.S. Supreme Court precedent as well as California’s longstanding commitment to maintaining a separate juvenile justice system.
