Juvenile Law Center

08/21/2026

Yesterday, Youth Today published an interview with Brit Christopher, our Stoneleigh Youth Advocacy Fellow, on her work on the No Kids in Prison magazine. Alongside fellow organizer Gabriel Arika, she discussed the harm in locking children up in prison and how the magazine is serving as an organizing tool for change.

No Kids in Prison magazine's curators on why incarceration fails young people — and how art, story and perspectives are building a movement to end it.

08/17/2026

There is still time to register for our Youth Justice Book Club! Juvenile Law Center will be joined by award-winning author Tananarive Due to discuss her book, The Reformatory.

This virtual discussion will explore how the juvenile legal system today carries echoes of the injustices Due’s protagonists face in the 1950s South. We will also share our current fight to eliminate the harm children experience in youth prisons.

https://give.jlc.org/event/youth-justice-book-club-the-reformatory-by-tananarive-due/e826645

08/13/2026

Between 2005-2016, the United States Supreme Court issued four groundbreaking decisions (Roper v. Simmons, Graham v. Florida, Miller v. Alabama, and Montgomery v. Louisiana) drastically altering sentencing practices for youth and confirming that youth are developmentally different from adults. They are more impetuous in their decision making, especially vulnerable to negative peer influences, and more capable of change and rehabilitation. These three characteristics are true for all youth, regardless of the seriousness of their crimes.

We are proud to have been part of these victories. - but the work is not done. We stand with our colleagues, including Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, in fighting to abolish juvenile life without parole in every state.

08/11/2026

Our Youth Justice Book Club is back! Join us Sept. 10th at 7pm ET / 4 pm PT for a virtual conversation with Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory. She'll be joined by members of our staff and board to discuss the harms of the juvenile legal system and children's placement in youth prisons and institutions. Click here to register: https://pro.gofundme.com/event/youth-justice-book-club-the-reformatory-by-tananarive-due/e826645

08/11/2026

Advocates are increasingly concerned about harm connected to GPS monitoring of children. Our CEO recently moderated a panel on this topic for the American Bar Association. Check out this article from our summer legal intern Cierra De La Garza to learn more:

Practitioners and advocates are questioning GPS ankle monitors’ implications on the lives and overall well-being of young people.

08/06/2026

The United States is one of only very few countries in the world to condemn children to die in prison through life without parole and other extreme sentences. These sentences perpetuate racist policies of mass incarceration as Black and Brown youth disproportionately face these sentences.

We don’t believe in condemning children to death by incarceration. End juvenile life without parole sentences.

07/31/2026

Victory! We joined forces with advocates to support James Gregory Eads, a Michigan man who was sentenced to 50 to 75 years in prison for a crime committed when he was 16 years old. In our amicus brief, we argued that this extreme term of years for an adolescent is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Michigan agreed. This ruling will apply retroactively. Read our press release with partners:

The ACLU of Michigan, the ACLU, Juvenile Law Center, and civil rights attorney Deborah LaBelle applaud the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision that subjecting young people to excessively long prison sentences violates the Michigan Constitution’s prohibition on cruel or unusual punishment.

07/31/2026

We've been so fortunate to have excellent summer interns! Meet our legal interns Caroline, Cierra and Ryan and our undergraduate interns Ini, Kausar and Flematu. We are eager to see where their careers take them. Thank you, Caroline, Cierra, Ryan, Ini, Kausar and Flematu, for your hard work and dedication to youth rights this summer!

07/29/2026

Today our staff met with Simon Melin, a Swedish reporter covering the country’s recent shift in laws that seek to charge more children criminally and expose them to harsher punishments and confinement. We shared how the U.S. systems of incarceration harm children and expose them to tremendous lifelong consequences. We are so grateful for Simon’s interest in comparative legal systems for children and hope that his reporting can shed light on the ways in which the proposed policy shifts will contribute to the mass incarceration of children in Sweden.