Posted: January 25th, 2012 | by Yuval Sheer

On August 8, 2011, thirteen summer associates from law schools across New York State graduated from our summer program. The program, a training platform for the next generation of juvenile justice advocates, has been referred to as NYCJJ’s “Juvenile Justice Academy.”

Jeremiah Rygus, an associate at the academy, researched the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction incurred at a young age. Based on his research, he submitted an article which was published in the Winter 2012 edition of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Magazine. In the conclusion to his article, Mr. Rygus noted:

“A System that automatically adjudicates children as adults is counterproductive. Saddling juveniles with an adult criminal record impedes personal efforts at reform and creates long-term societal expense. Children need room to reform, and a system that imposes adult convictions on a juvenile only when necessary, and for only the most severe crimes, would be far less damaging than the practice of allowing the exception to craft the rule. After all, does anyone want to be judged by who they were at 14?”

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