Most children and youth are involved with more than one public system. Information gathered from children and youth when they are in these systems, including health, educational, disciplinary and criminal records, needs to be protected. A delicate balance exists between the need for public systems to share information in order to serve youth and the public good, and the need to avoid sharing incorrect, inflammatory, or protected information, which, if misused, has the potential for significant harm. Records, including court-ordered mental health screenings, assessments, and directives for treatment, may end up unfairly providing the basis for the prosecution of youth who sought or were directed to needed health care services. Juvenile justice or child welfare records can also create problems as young people move into adulthood by acting as a barrier to employment or to educational opportunity.

Since the fall of 2007, JLC has received support from the MacArthur Foundation to help staff a one-year initiative to develop best practices and policies for record and information sharing in the juvenile justice system that will be implemented in four states (Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana and Washington State). JLC has published a monograph on how jurisdictions can protect youth from self-incrimination when they undergo mental health screening, assessment or treatment within the justice system. JLC has also authored a manual for public defenders about expunging juvenile court records, as well as a manual on consent and confidentiality relating to health records. JLC is also drafting a guide, written explicitly for youth in the juvenile justice system (soon to be available on this website), that outlines the consequences of having a juvenile record and the steps a youth can take to expunge his or her own record.

JLC continues to work with Pennsylvania juvenile defenders to develop policies and procedures for automatically expunging records of juvenile arrests that don’t result in findings of guilt. JLC also plans to implement an expungement pro bono project. This project, staffed by volunteer attorneys from the private bar, will answer questions regarding juvenile records and assist individuals in filing pro se expungement petitions. JLC’s also serves on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Interbranch Commission on Gender, Ethnic, and Racial Fairness Subcommittee on Expungement seeking to develop and extend policies that will improve records’ protections for youth in public systems.