Legal Expertise or Intern Needed To Help Reform the Juvenile Justice System

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NJPC is seeking a paralegal, attorney, law student or intern to volunteer (Either in our office or virtual) to help us in reforming the Juvenile Justice System by ending the process of waiving youth 15-17 years of age to the adult prison system, ending solitary confinement for youth, ending the process of transering youth adjudicated delinquent to the adult system without due process and reducing racial and ethnic disparities in NJ's juvenile justice system. Volunteer will respond to emails from our youth got this members who are currently incarcerated. volunteer will also set up legal services calls for our pro bono attorney and our current youth Caucus members who are incarcerated. NJPC has recently published a data brief - The Incarceration of Children & Youth in New Jersey’s Adult Prison System: New Jersey Youth Justice Initiative - of 472 children and youth, ages 14 to 17, who were waived, sentenced and incarcerated in New Jersey’s adult prison system between 2007 - 2015. The Brief was published nationally and showed:

 Gross racial and ethnic disparities: approximately 90% are youth of color; 72% are African American males.

 Justice by geography: Rates of incarceration in the adult prison system vary significantly across counties in New Jersey, suggesting that justice depends on where one lives, not on the facts of a given case.

 Youth are regularly deprived of due process: Approximately 30% of the 472 youth waived to adult court during the study period spent more than 2 years incarcerated, between their arrest date and their sentencing date, violating their right to a speedy trial.

 Youth are regularly put in solitary confinement - especially youth with mental health disorders: Although solitary confinement is known to be psychologically damaging, especially to children, 53% of these youth spent a total of approximately 15,359 days (42 years) in solitary confinement between 2010 and 2015; 5 percent spend over a year there, and about 4 percent spent 2 years or more in solitary. Nearly 70 percent of those placed in solitary had a mental health disorder, with nearly 37% having two or more diagnoses.

 Youth suffer abuse while in adult prison: once incarcerated in an adult prison, one in four youth surveyed reported physical abuse; 5% reported sexual abuse.

NJPC has also published the first family guide to Navigating the Juvenile Justic: System in New Jersey: A Family GUide which was published nationally.