Each year two million young people are arrested in the United States. Juvenile Law Center approaches all aspects of youth involvement in the justice system from a holistic point of view; these children are not just delinquents, they are young people who deserve the opportunity to grow and develop, to obtain an education and acquire job skills and to return to and advance in their communities. Juvenile Law Center works to ensure that the systems young people come into contact with, whether juvenile courts or adult courts, juvenile detention facilities or adult prisons, disciplinary or regular schools, serve them in a manner which will provide the best possible outcomes. Juvenile Law Center employs the best research available on adolescent development to reform policies and improve practices in systems that serve juvenile offenders. Juvenile Law Center’s goal is the establishment and promotion of fair, effective, rational and developmentally appropriate juvenile justice systems and the fair and effective treatment of juveniles in the adult criminal justice system.
Luzerne County "Kids for Cash" Scandal
Argued that imposing strict liability on a 12-year-old violates the US and Ohio Constitutions’ guarantees of fundamental fairness, provides for highly disproportionate penalties and collateral consequences and creates a risk of prosecution based on personal views or biases.
This brief involved a thirteen-year-old special needs student who was questioned by a uniformed police officer on school grounds regarding a series of break-ins. JLC argued that the student should have been considered in custody for Miranda purposes.
This brief to the Connecticut Supreme Court dealt with a Connecticut statute, which allows a prosecutor to choose the forum in which youthful offenders are tried. Amici argued that this statute deprived youthful offenders of their right to due process by placing sole discretion to waive in the hands of the prosecutor.
This brief to the Connecticut Supreme Court dealt with a Connecticut statute governing transfer of juveniles to adult court. Amici argued that the statute, which gave the prosecutor sole discretion to transfer a juvenile’s case to the adult criminal system, deprived juveniles of their right to due process.
