Recent news

Today is the 20th anniversary of Roper v Simmons, a groundbreaking United States Supreme Court decision that ushered in a new framework for analyzing children’s rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment. Roper banned the death penalty for youth who were convicted of murder before they turned 18.

The 2019 Teen Vogue article by Juvenile Law Center and Girls for Gender Equality titled “The U.S. Has Been Silencing Black Girls’ Voices for Decades” captured the experience of the stockade where young girls were arrested and put in harsh conditions while their parents were strapped with fines and fees just for speaking out about segregation and discrimination. We know these practices still happen today.

Five decades of advocating for children behind bars have taught us that we must be unrelenting in protecting young people from harm and bold in imagining a better world. The horrors children face when incarcerated require us to uncover and confront abuse.

In 2004, as a third-year law student at Loyola Chicago I knew I wanted to fight for children’s rights but had no idea what the world had to offer. I came across a posting for the Zubrow fellowship at Juvenile Law Center.

Some days it seems like it was only yesterday, some days I feel the decades behind me. I can still remember the planning meetings around Judy Chomsky’s kitchen table — to be clear, Judy was the only one among us who actually had a kitchen table, not to mention other actual pieces of furniture — as we four soon-to-be graduates of Temple Law School hatched an idea to start a non-profit law firm for children.

As I approach my retirement, I am facing two directions. I am looking back over the past near decade that I have served as CEO of Juvenile Law Center, and I am looking forward to Riya Saha Shah leading the office as the next CEO, our 50th Anniversary and the work ahead in 2025.

On October 20 and 21, Juvenile Law Center hosted our third national Debt Free Justice convening in Berkeley, California with partners from the National Center for Youth Law and Berkeley Law School’s Policy Advocacy Clinic. The convening gathered over fifty advocates from around the country working to eliminate fees and fines in the juvenile legal system.

October is Youth Justice Action Month, an opportunity to elevate youth in the justice system, the issues they face, and their incredible resilience. On October 2nd, Juvenile Law Center launched the Broken Promises: Futures Denied, the second edition of their powerful Broken Bridges report that has been used by policymakers, state agencies, and others to help guide their work.