Recent news

Vast majority of youth strip searches reviewed by Child Protection Ombudsman found no contraband Staff at Colorado’s juvenile detention centers violated policies meant to protect youth during strip searches more than 1,000 times during nine months between 2023 and 2025, according to a new review by the Child Protection Ombudsman of Colorado released Tuesday.

This week, Juvenile Law Center and Temple Law Review are hosting a symposium reflecting on 50 years of children’s rights advocacy and how to use different strategies in the future. As we prepare for the symposium, I am sending an important message to law students – the future of the legal profession.

Jamie Silvonek, who admitted helping her soldier boyfriend murder her mother when she was 14, is seeking to have her 35-years-to-life sentence changed to a term that would allow her to leave prison much sooner. With every other appeal option exhausted, Silvonek, now 24, is seeking commutation, a process that could eventually end with the governor of Pennsylvania signing her release papers.

On May 30, 2025 Juvenile Law Center submitted a commutation petition to the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons on behalf of Jamie Silvonek, 24, of Upper Macungie Township, PA. If the Board recommends commutation, it will go to Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) for final decision.

At 14, I was sentenced to 35 years to life in an adult prison for my role in my mother’s murder. After exhausting all other options, I am seeking the commutation of my sentence to life on parole.

Crime is down overall in Detroit — but according to police, not for the city's youth who've experienced a particularly bloody summer.

Last week, in a news conference filled with lies and disinformation, President Donald Trump chose to double down on failed policies of the past. In the face of a steeply declining crime wave, the administration has decided to federalize the D.C. police force and call out the National Guard to patrol the D.C. streets and chase down “roving bands of youth.”

A growing body of research shows that juvenile offenders are immature and impulsive. But in spite of landmark Supreme Court rulings, many so-called juvenile lifers are growing old behind bars.

Richard L. Berkman, retired Dechert LLP partner and longtime civic leader, and Toni Seidl, longtime advocate for children and social justice, have made a landmark series of charitable contributions totaling $900,000 to three leading legal nonprofits in Pennsylvania: the Public Interest Law Center, Education Law Center-PA, and Juvenile Law Center. These gifts will fuel critical work on behalf of children, youth, and communities facing systemic injustice. 

Juvenile Law Center has been a national leader advocating for the rights of young people in the justice system for 50 years. One of the ways in which Juvenile Law Center is unique, however, is in the role it has played shaping international law, policy and thinking on juvenile justice and in inspiring those who advocate for justice for children. This has happened in three principal ways.