Annual Campaign

This case is part of a Right2Hug campaign fighting local jail bans on in-person family visitation; this case challenged a ban on in-person visitation at the Adams County, Colorado jail. Our amicus brief argues that the Adams County, Colorado ban on in-person visitation especially harms children in the foster system. The brief also underscores how policies to keep children from their families disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, and Latine youth and entrench structural racism.  

This case challenges the practice of confining children for extended periods when they are found incompetent to stand trial. The trial court found M.H., an eleven-year-old girl, incompetent to stand trial yet ordered her detained in the local juvenile detention center for competency restoration. Juvenile Law Center, The Gault Center, and Professor Gia Elise Barboza-Salerno, represented by pro bono counsel Adam VanHo, submitted an amicus brief arguing that detaining M.H. was dangerous and counter-productive. We argued that such confinement creates a grave risk of physical abuse, causes trauma and lifelong devastating health outcomes, and disrupts the supportive systems needed for healthy development.