Posted: August 9th, 2011 | 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.”

During the summer, the associates wrote policy papers about New York’s low age of criminal responsibility and its collateral consequences on the future of our youth. In addition, the associates researched the societal and economic benefits that could be derived by expanding the jurisdiction of the New York Family Court to include sixteen and seventeen-year-olds.

The associates visited the Youth Part in Manhattan’s Adult Criminal Court and heard a lecture from the presiding judge, the Honorable Eduardo Padro. They also visited the Manhattan Family Court and spoke with Family Court Judge Susan Larabee.

In addition, the summer associates heard from speakers representing a variety of stakeholders in New York’s Juvenile Justice System including: Nancy Ginsburg, Director of the Adolescent Intervention and Diversion Team of the Legal Aid Society, Criminal Practice; Alexandra Cox, Soros Justice Fellow and a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University; Wendy Perlmutter, Director of Operations for Evidence Based Programs at The New York Foundling; Prof. Meril Sobie, Chairperson, New York State Bar Association Committee on Children and the Law; Ashley Cannon, Director of Policy at the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City; David Chura, Youth Advocate and former teacher at Westchester County Correctional Facility; Professor Paolo Galizzi, Director, Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School; Valerie Levshin, Research Associate at Vera Institute of Justice; Jenny Kronenfeld, Executive Director, Esperanza; and Petra Guder from the German Association of Juvenile Justice.

At the end of the program, John Dimatos, a lecturer on new media at New York University challenged the students to create preliminary prototypes of campaigns to raise the age of criminal responsibility in New York.

Associates Marissa Hirsch, Emani Davis, Annie Causey, and Jeremiah Rygus created the following video titled “Because I am 16”:

Asociates Vincent Lau, Robert Fantone, Cody Disch, Robert Schechter, Elizabeth Arismendy, and Amanda Toombs created a full length video about New York’s age of criminal responsibility. A portion of it can be viewed here:

And associates Alexandra Schonfeld, Justine Stringer, Lauren Flynn, and Ariana Sanai developed a full campaign concept of videos and ads that included the following powerful image:

We want to thank our summer associates for their hard work, and most importantly for the leadership they are bringing to this movement.

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