The NACC Board of Directors is conducting a search for an Executive Director. Persons interested in the Executive Director position should contact NACCed@NACCchildlaw.org.

 

Interested in applying for the Child Welfare Law Specialist (CWLS) program? Our final diversity campaign for 2016 is for Agency Attorneys, Parents' Counsel, and Children's Attorneys/GALs. Deadline is November 30th.

JJIE
County prosecutors in California currently hold the authority to bypass the juvenile judge and directly file charges against a young person in adult court. This measure would place the decision to transfer youth to adult criminal court into the hands of judges.

AlterNet
Sixty human rights organizations recently cent an open letter to Professor Sètondji Adjovi, chair of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The letter calls for the U.N. to intervene against the U.S. government’s policy of incarcerating children with their mother in family immigrant detention centers – noting that children in these facilities have shown signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression.

New York Times
In scores of rigorously conducted studies, social psychologists have demonstrated that brief experiences can have a powerful and long-lasting impact on students’ academic futures by changing their mind-sets before they get to college.

Huffington Post
The Supreme Court on Monday gave a new day in court to five Arizona defendants who were sentenced to spend the rest of their days in prison without the possibility of ever getting out. Every defendant was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole while they were still under the age of 18 ― a type of sentence the high court has said should be given to minors only in extreme circumstances.

JJIE
For this study, recently published in Criminal Justice and Behavior, self-reported ETV in 2,124 BHJJ youth were examined. Exposure to violence is so prevalent in juvenile justice-involved youth that understanding this phenomenon in this population is critical to reducing the likelihood of their continued involvement with the justice system.

Time
Advocates across the country are hard at work to create more effective, humane alternatives that will help young offenders stay out of the criminal justice system as adults.

M. Currey Cook, Esq.

Currey Cook is a Senior Attorney and National Director of the Youth in Out-of-Home Care Project at Lambda Legal. Lambda Legal is the oldest and largest national legal organization whose mission is to achieve full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work. View Currey’s NACC profile here.

Welcome to Kelly Williams from Coughlin & Williams in Ridgeland, Mississippi.