{"id":224,"date":"2012-05-17T19:09:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T19:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ubaltlawcfcc.wordpress.com\/2012\/05\/17\/juvenile-justice-reform-cfccs-urban-child-symposium-the-beginning-or-the-end-the-urban-childs-experience-in-the-juvenile-justice-system"},"modified":"2012-05-17T19:09:00","modified_gmt":"2012-05-17T19:09:00","slug":"juvenile-justice-reform-cfccs-urban-child-symposium-the-beginning-or-the-end-the-urban-childs-experience-in-the-juvenile-justice-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/2012\/05\/17\/juvenile-justice-reform-cfccs-urban-child-symposium-the-beginning-or-the-end-the-urban-childs-experience-in-the-juvenile-justice-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Justice Reform: CFCC\u2019s Urban Child Symposium, The Beginning or the End? The Urban Child\u2019s Experience in the Juvenile Justice System"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\nProfessor
\nBernardine Dohrn<\/a> opened CFCC\u2019s fourth annual Urban Child Symposium with a powerful
\npresentation on the Supreme Court\u2019s recent consideration of juvenile justice
\ncases.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Over 200 people attended \u201cThe Beginning or the End? The Urban
\nChild’s Experience in the Juvenile Justice System,\u201d which included
\ninterdisciplinary panel discussions of issues such as the psychological,
\nsocial, and emotional characteristics of juveniles; whether juveniles can
\nand\/or should be tried as adults; racial disparities\/disproportionate minority representation;
\nand the school-to-prison pipeline, among others.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nYou can view the agenda here<\/a><\/u>
\nand listen to some of the panelists discuss juvenile justice issues on WYPR\u2019s
\nMidday with Dan Rodricks here<\/a>.<\/u><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nProfessor Dohrn spoke about positive changes in the juvenile
\njustice field in the past decade. She discussed recent Supreme Court decisions that
\nhave banned capital punishment for juveniles and life-without-parole for
\nnon-homicide juvenile offenses.\u00a0 She
\nurged symposium participants to pay attention to the Supreme Court\u2019s
\nrecognition that children experience the world differently and that there must
\nbe a more accurate understanding of children\u2019s interactions with the law.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nSeveral ideas emerged during the course of the symposium:<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n\u2022<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span>Juveniles should
\nbe directed toward community and family-based treatment rather than
\nincarceration.<\/b> Speakers urged
\nconsideration of evidence-based, non-residential programs as the single most
\nimportant alternative to sending juveniles to detention facilities, many of
\nwhich are characterized by violence and poor conditions.\u00a0 Speakers described a number of alternative
\nand diversion programs that are proven to be more effective in addressing
\njuvenile crime and recidivism. \u00a0The Annie
\nE. Casey Foundation\u2019s <\/span>Bart
\nLubow<\/a><\/span> and other speakers discussed the massive financial burden of juvenile
\nincarceration (including Maryland\u2019s proposed $100 million juvenile prison
\nfacility), which could be used instead to support widespread diversionary prevention
\nand treatment programs.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n\u2022<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Racial and
\nethnic disparities (\u201cDisproportionate Minority Contact\u201d) must be addressed on a
\nsystem-wide basis and across all decision points in a juvenile case.\u00a0 Special populations, like girls; trauma
\nvictims; children with special needs; and lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and
\ntransgender youth must also be protected and considered.\u00a0 <\/b>Many presenters, including Professor Odeana Neal<\/a>,
\nattorney and reform advocate Dana
\nShoenberg<\/a><\/u>, and Assistant State\u2019s Attorney George Simms encouraged the
\nexpansion of best practices in this area to combat current differences in
\noutcomes based on race, ethnicity, gender, and other characteristics.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n\u2022<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Laws requiring
\nor allowing juveniles to be tried as adults should be abandoned because they hurt
\nchildren and endanger society.\u00a0 <\/b>Professor
\nDohrn and other presenters reported that juvenile involvement in the adult criminal
\njustice and prison systems is counter-productive.\u00a0 Juveniles are often victimized by adults in the prison system, and
\nrecidivism (re-offending) increases for juveniles who come out of adult
\nprisons.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\n\u2022<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>All stakeholders
\n\u2013 including families, schools, prosecutors, departments of juvenile services,
\nsocial workers, employers and more \u2013 should be involved in reform efforts. \u00a0<\/b>Parent Advocate Kimberly Armstrong<\/a> spoke
\npoignantly about her experience as the parent of a child in the juvenile
\njustice system.\u00a0 Instead of finding
\nsupport and collaboration in the juvenile justice system, she encountered multiple
\nbarriers when seeking help for her son and often felt alone in advocating on
\nhis behalf.\u00a0 She now encourages all
\nstakeholders in the juvenile justice system to enlist the support of parents
\nand to treat them as valuable partners in addressing their children\u2019s
\nproblems.<\/span><\/div>\n


<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nFor more information, you can watch a podcast of the symposium
\nproceedings and access many of the Powerpoint presentations here<\/a>.\u00a0 We hope that our presenters and participants
\nwill blog about the issues discussed during the event, and we welcome comments from
\nour readers.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Bernardine Dohrn opened CFCC\u2019s fourth annual Urban Child Symposium with a powerful presentation on the Supreme Court\u2019s recent consideration of juvenile justice cases.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Over 200 people attended \u201cThe Beginning or the End? The Urban Child’s Experience in the Juvenile Justice System,\u201d which included interdisciplinary panel discussions of issues such as the psychological, social, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2988,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,23,26,32,35,40,6,46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2988"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}