Recent news

Juvenile Law Center goes international! 

In a response to the Department of Health and Human Services about a project on personal searches of young people in custody, Elizabeth Daly, the Acting Commissioner for Children in Tasmania, Australia, cited an article written by Juvenile Law Center Supervising Attorney Jessica Feierman and Staff Attorney Riya Shah on strip-searching youth in detention.

Here at Juvenile Law Center, we're gearing up for a busy December. Below are details on three not-to-be-missed educational events taking place next month. 

On November 14, 2013, Juvenile Law Center Supervising Attorney Jessica Feierman facilitated a national webinar, "The Uninterrupted Scholars Act: Promising Information-Sharing Practices."

In a landmark ruling for Pennsylvania, York County Court of Common Pleas Judge John C. Uhler ruled on November 4, 2013 that Pennsylvania's recently enacted law requiring that juveniles convicted of sexual offenses be subjected to lifetime sex offender registration violates their rights under various provisions of the Pennsylvania and United States Constitutions, as well as Pennsylvania's Juvenile Act.

The American Bar Association Section of Litigation's Children's Rights Litigation Committee has released the latest podcast in its "Starting and Building a Children's Legal Services Practice" series. 

We are deeply disappointed that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided not to follow the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in Miller v. Alabama, that juveniles convicted of homicide can no longer receive mandatory sentences of life without parole. The decision also ignores the trend in both state and federal courts to find Miller retroactive.

The Pennsylvania Senate has designated October 21-25 as "Juvenile Detention Centers Week," providing an opportunity to reflect on the practie of placing juveniles in secure detention facilities—and how a promising national initiative is helping to transform that practice.

Juvenile Law Center has announced that a partial settlement with a second set of defendants has been reached in the Luzerne County juvenile-court civil litigation.

Over on The Huffington Post's blog, Juvenile Law Center Staff Attorney Emily Keller and Steve Drizin, Clinical Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law, explain why felony murder statutes and their accompanying harsh prison sentences should not apply to children and teens, given that scientific research shows they are less able than adults to understand and assess risks.

Thanks to a federal ruling yesterday, three Pennsylvania inmates, convicted of murder offenses they committed as juveniles and sentenced to life without parole, will be able to petition the federal district court to reconsider their sentences.