Quotes & Sayings About The Juvenile Court

I did criminal defense work part-time, and that paid the bills for representing abused and neglected children ... and for defending in juvenile court those kids the 'child protective system' had missed when it had the chance. — Andrew Vachss

Not long after graduation I was teaching at an alternative school and already I had serious doubts about my career choice. My students were hellions. I'd been assaulted twice. My car had been vandalized. I had to testify in court against one of my students, and afterward - and purely for spite - I delivered her textbook and homework assignments to the juvenile detention facility. Not my finest moment, but I enjoyed it. — Tucker Elliot

Before the immigration crisis was declared in the summer of 2014, minors seeking immigration relief were given approximately twelve months to find a lawyer to represent their case before their first court hearing. But when the crisis was declared and Obama's administration created the priority juvenile docket, that window was reduced to twenty-one days. In real and practical terms, what the creation of that priority docket meant was that the cases involving unaccompanied minors from Central America were grouped together and moved to the top of the list of pending cases in immigration court. Being moved to the top of a list, in this context, was the least desirable thing - at least from the point of view of the children involved. Basically, the priority juvenile docket implied that deportation proceedings against them were accelerated by 94 percent, and that both they and the organizations that normally provided legal representation now had much less time to build a defense. — Valeria Luiselli

The fundamental question Juvenile Court was designed to ask - What's the best way to deal with this individual kid? - is often lost in the process, replaced by a point system that opens the door, or locks it, depending on the qualities of the crime, not the child. — Edward Humes