JUVENILE COURTS RESOURCES

  • June 01, 2009
 
 
 
 
Contains reports and data on topics including crime and victims; prosecution, courts and sentencing; and special topics such as drugs and crime, homicide trends, firearms and crime and reentry trends.
 
Juvenile Justice: National Criminal Justice Reference Service
Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice
The site features data, trends and reports on topics such as adjudication of juvenile cases, crime in schools, female juvenile delinquents, gangs, curfews, juvenile sex offenders and more.
 
The National Juvenile Court Data Archive houses the automated records of cases handled by courts with juvenile jurisdiction. The archive was established to promote access to automated juvenile court data sets for juvenile justice research and policymaking efforts.
 
OJJDP provides data on juvenile crime, delinquency prevention and violence and victimization. Its online Statistical Briefing Book offers direct access to statistics and trends in juvenile justice and victimization. Also see: Trends in the Murder of Juveniles: 1980–2000.
 
This page features statutes, court rules and other policies related to juvenile justice on topics such as rules for transfer to adult court; ages of juvenile court jurisdiction; and rates of disproportionate minority confinement.
   
FedStats offers a full range of official statistical information available to the public from the Federal Government. The Crime page offers links to other government sources for crime and justice stats.
 
The National Juvenile Defender Center conducts state-based assessments of access to and quality of juvenile defense counsel. These reports are part of a nationwide effort to improve juvenile indigent defense across the country. The assessments provide comprehensive examinations of the systemic and institutional barriers that prevent lawyers from providing adequate legal services to indigent children within a particular state legal system.
 
NACJD facilitates and encourages research in criminal justice through computerized data sources and training in quantitative analysis of crime and justice data.
 
Corrections Statistics
Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice 
Includes statistics on capital punishment, jails, prisons, probation and parole.
 
 
 
David Altschuler Ph.D.
Principal Research Scientist
Institute for Policy Studies
Johns Hopkins University
 
Address:
Wyman Building, 3400 N. Charles St., Room 548
Baltimore, MD 21218
 
Phone:
410.516.7179
 
E-mail:
dma@jhu.edu
 
 
Altschuler’s work focuses on juvenile crime and justice system sanctioning, juvenile aftercare and parole, offender reentry, privatization in juvenile corrections, and drug involvement and crime among inner-city youth. He was director and co-principal investigator for a federally funded project that developed a model of intensive aftercare for high-risk juvenile parolees released from secure correctional facilities. Also see: http://ips.jhu.edu/mpp/images/INFObar/faculty/alts
chuler.html
 
Troy Armstrong Ph.D.
Professor of Anthropology and Director
Center for Delinquency and Crime Policy Studies
California State University, Sacramento
 
Address:
7750 College Town Drive, Suite 104
Sacramento, CA 95826
 
Phone:
916.278.6259
 
 
 
Armstrong directs the center, and he's co-principal investigator on the Intensive Juvenile Aftercare Project funded by federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. It's a research-based approach to transitioning youth from confinement back into the community. Armstrong researches restitution and community service; intensive probation; and community-based alternatives to formal justice system processing.
 
Richard Barth Ph.D.
Dean
School of Social Work
University of Maryland, Baltimore
 
Address:
525 W. Redwood St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
 
Phone:
410.706.7794
 
 
 
Barth's research interests include child abuse and neglect, foster care dynamics, adoption policy, shared family care, program evaluation and linkages between child welfare and juvenile justice services. He's the co-author of several books, including "Evidence for Child Welfare Policy Reform" (2005) and is co-principal investigator of the National Study of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. He has received numerous awards and was a senior Fulbright specialist in Australia in 2006.
 
Donna Bishop Ph.D.
Professor
College of Criminal Justice
Northeastern University
 
Address:
204 Churchill Hall
360 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
 
Phone:
617.373.3362
 
 
 
Bishop specializes in juvenile justice policy and practice, including the transfer of juveniles to criminal courts; juvenile detention reform; assessment and treatment of juvenile offenders; and the role of race, gender and place in justice processing and outcomes.
 
Bruce Boyer
Director
Civitas ChildLaw Clinic
Loyola University
 
Address:
16 E. Pearson St.
Chicago, IL 60611
 
Phone:
312.915.7927
 
 
 
Boyer directs the clinic, a pediatric law office in which Loyola students learn skills to represent children and advocate for clients. Boyer focuses primarily on child maltreatment issues and has represented clients in a wide range of proceedings, including child welfare, juvenile delinquency, special education and disability hearings. Boyer has litigated, taught, consulted and written extensively in the area of child abuse and neglect. He has been appointed to the new Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism.
 
Jeffrey Butts Ph.D.
Research Fellow
Chapin Hall Center for Children
University of Chicago
 
Address:
1313 E. 60th St.
Chicago, IL 60637
 
Phone:
773.256.5163
 
 
 
Along with his work at Chapin Hall, Butts teaches in the university's School of Social Service Administration. Since 1991, he has managed more than $8 million of funded research, including projects on teen courts, juvenile drug courts, substance abuse treatment and juvenile court processing. Before moving to Chicago in 2005, he directed the Urban Institute's Program on Youth Justice. Earlier, he was a researcher with the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh. Also see: http://jbutts.com/pdfs/rwjf%20rec%20futures.pdf
 
Meda Chesney-Lind Ph.D.
Professor of Women's Studies
Women's Studies
University of Hawaii at Manoa
 
Address:
2424 Maile Way
Honolulu, HI 96822
 
Phone:
808.956.6313
 
 
 
Chesney-Lind researches girls’ delinquency and women’s crime. She has studied women’s imprisonment; youth gangs; the sociology of gender with an emphasis on women and systems of social control; and the victimization of women and girls. Her recent books include “Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment” (New Press, 2002) and “Beyond Bad Girls: Gender, Violence and Hype” (Routledge, 2007).
 
Joseph Cocozza Ph.D.
Vice President for Research, National Center for M
The National GAINS Center for People with Co-Occurring Disorders in the Justice System
Policy Research Associates, Inc.
 
Address:
345 Delaware Ave.
Delmar, NY 12054
 
Phone:
800.311.4246
 
 
 
Cocozza is vice president for research with Policy Research Associates Inc. (PRA). He has worked on a number of projects, including a national survey of pre-trial forensic evaluations, a multi-site study of welfare reform and an assessment of comprehensive approaches to child and family services. Cocozza is director of the recently established National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, located within PRA, which promotes awareness of and develops programs regarding the mental health needs of youth in the juvenile justice system. Cocozza also directs a national study, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, to determine the prevalence rates and mental health service needs of justice-involved youth. He has co-directed The National GAINS Center for People with Co-Occurring Disorders in the Justice System, focused on improving the systems responsible for people with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. Cocozza also directs the coordinating center for the federally supported, nine-site Women and Violence Study.
 
Bernardine Dohrn
Director
Children & Family Justice Center
Northwestern University
 
Address:
Law Legal Clinic
375 E. Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611
 
Phone:
312.503.8576
 
 
 
Dohrn is the center's founding director and a clinical associate professor of law. She teaches, lectures and writes about children's law and justice as well as the international human rights. Dohrn was a member of the Expert Work Group for the Adoption 2002 Project of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Domestic Violence Child Abuse Working Group of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the steering committee of the Illinois Family Violence Coordinating Committee. In the late 1960s, Dohrn was a member of the radical Weathermen group, which plotted against the U.S. government.
 
Steven Drizin
Clinical Associate Professor of Law; Legal Director
Center on Wrongful Convictions
Northwestern University School of Law
 
Address:
357 E. Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611
 
Phone:
312.503.6608
 
 
 
Drizin teaches criminal law to first-year law students and supervises second- and third-year students in representing children and adolescents in the juvenile and criminal courts of Cook County, Ill. He has written numerous articles and op-ed pieces on juvenile justice-related matters, including false confessions, videotaping interrogations, the juvenile death penalty and the efficacy of prosecuting children as adults.
 
Finn-Aage Esbensen Ph.D.
Professor of Youth Crime and Violence
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of Missouri-St. Louis
 
Address:
8001 Natural Bridge Road
St. Louis, MO 63121
 
Phone:
314.516.4619
 
 
Esbensen is the university's E. Desmond Lee Professor of Youth Crime and Violence. He's principal investigator for two current, federally funded projects: on teens, crime and community works training (scheduled to conclude in 2008); and on a middle school-based prevention program taught by uniformed law enforcement officers (through 2011). His research has covered a broad range of topics, and his methodologies have included participant observation in a county jail and a longitudinal national survey of adolescents.
 
Jeffrey Fagan Ph.D.
Professor of Law and Public Health
Columbia University School of Law
 
Address:
435 W. 116th St.
Room 634, Box D-18
New York, NY 10027
 
Phone:
212.854.2624
 
 
 
Fagan focuses his research and scholarship on crime, law and social policy. Currently, he's examining the jurisprudence of adolescent crime, social contagion theories of violence and error rates in capital punishment, among other topics. He is a fellow of the American Society of Criminology and serves as chair of its national policy committee. He's also on the National Research Council's committee on law and justice, the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice and the Russell Sage Foundation's incarceration working group. He was on the National Research Council panel on family violence interventions. A past editor of the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Fagan serves on the editorial boards of several criminology and law journals. He wrote “Changing Borders of Juvenile Justice” (University of Chicago Press, 2000), which the Society for Research on Adolescence cited as a best book on social policy.
 
Barry Feld
Centennial Professor of Law
University of Minnesota
 
Address:
340 Mondale Hall
229 19th Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
 
Phone:
218.743.3118
 
 
 
Feld teaches criminal procedure, juvenile law, torts, and education and law. In addition to his law degree, he holds a doctorate in sociology. He has written eight books and about 70 articles and book chapters on juvenile justice, focusing on serious young offenders, procedural justice in juvenile court, police interrogation of juveniles, youth sentencing policy and race. “Bad Kids: Race and the Transformation of the Juvenile Court” (Oxford University Press, 1999) was named an outstanding book by the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. Feld was a prosecutor in the Hennepin County (Minn.) Attorney’s Office and a co-reporter of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Juvenile Court Rules of Procedure Advisory Committee.
 
James Alan Fox
The Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice
Northeastern University
 
Address:
School of Criminal Justice, 400 CH
Boston, MA 02115
 
Phone:
617.373.3296
 
E-mail:
jfox@neu.edu
 
 
An expert on multiple murder, juvenile crime, school violence, workplace violence and capital punishment, Fox has written sixteen books, including "The Will to Kill: Making Sense of Senseless Murder," (Allyn & Bacon, 2004) and "Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder" (Sage Publications, 2005).
 
David Gamble Ph.D.
Program Manager
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
 
Address:
P.O. Box 8970
Reno, NV 89507
 
Phone:
775.784.6631
 
 
 
Gamble serves as the progam manager of NCJFCJ's Juvenile and Family Law Department and directs its Juvenile Sanctions Center. A clinical psychologist and with a law degree, Gamble is an expert on minority youth and overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system.
 
Stephen Gavazzi
Professor of Human Devel and Family Science
College of Human Ecology
Ohio State University
 
Address:
171B Campbell, 1787 Neil Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210
 
Phone:
614.292.5620
 
 
Gavazzi established a research program that identifies the impact of family dynamics on adolescent development and problem behavior. He also created the Growing Up FAST Program, a family-based diversion initiative for use with juvenile offenders and their families. He's working on a Web-based instrument known as the Global Risk Assessment Device, designed to measure potential threats to the development of adolescents in the juvenile justice system. GRAD is being tested in three county juvenile courts in Ohio. Female offenders exhibited higher risk than male offenders in areas such as family and peer relations, physical health, mental health, traumatic events and accountability issues.
 
Thomas F. Geraghty
Associate Dean for Clinical Education
Director, Bluhm Legal Clinic--Children and Family Justice Center
Northwestern University School of Law
 
Address:
357 E. Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611
 
Phone:
312.503.8576
 
 
 
The center provides opportunities for law students to represent children in juvenile court and conducts research on issues including: due process protection for children; police interrogations of children and false confessions; school disciplinary policies; the juvenile death penalty; the development of gender appropriate justice for girls; and community justice solutions.
 
Steven Gorelick Ph.D.
Professor of Media Studies
Hunter College
 
Address:
365 Fifth Ave., Room 8201
New York, NY 10016
 
Phone:
212.650.3089
 
 
 
Gorelick is interim director of Hunter's M.F.A. program in integrated media arts. His major research interest is media coverage of crime and violence, especially the impact of high-profile acts of violence on communities, media institutions and the fabric of social life. Gorelick has written for numerous newspapers, plus the Journal of Crime and Delinquency, the Media Studies Journal of the Freedom Forum at Columbia University, and The Children's Beat: A Journal of Media Coverage. He's on the advisory council of the University of Washington's Dart Center on Journalism and Trauma.
 
Thomas Grisso Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry
Center for Mental Health Services Research
University of Massachusetts Medical School
 
Address:
55 Lake Ave. N.
Worcester, MA 01655
 
Phone:
508.856.3625
 
 
 
Grisso is a professor of psychiatry, director of the center's mental health and law core and coordinator of medical school's law-psychiatry program. His research interests include clinical forensic assessment in criminal and juvenile cases, developmental issues in juvenile law, mental health needs of young offenders, and risk of violence in adults and youths with mental disorders.
 
Darnell F. Hawkins Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
African-American Studies
University of Illinois at Chicago
 
Address:
601 S. Morgan St., Room 1223
Chicago, IL 60607
 
Phone:
312.996.2996
 
 
 
Hawkins is professor emeritus of African-American studies, sociology and criminal justice. He conducts research on racial and ethnic differences in rates of criminal involvement and criminal justice system processing. Hawkins served on a National Academy of Sciences panel on juvenile crime and justice; he also edited “Our Children, Their Children: Confronting Race and Ethnic Differences in American Criminal Justice” (University of Chicago Press, 2004).
 
Brian Jacob
Assistant Professor
Public Policy
 
Address:
Kennedy School of Government
79 John F. Kennedy St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
 
Phone:
617.384.7968
 
 
 
Jacob's current research focuses on urban school reform with a particular emphasis on standards and accountability initiatives. He has examined the effect of school choice and high-stakes testing on student achievement, the incidence of teacher cheating within educational accountabiltiy systems, the relationship between school and juvenile delinquency, and the impact of public housing demolitions on educational opportunities for children.
 
Barry Krisberg Ph.D.
President
National Council on Crime & Delinquency (NCCD)
 
Address:
1970 Broadway, Suite 500
Oakland, CA 94612
 
Phone:
510.208.0500, Ext. 311
 
 
 
Krisberg is president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, an Oakland, Calif.-based organization that develops model criminal and juvenile justice programs, and advises governments on criminal and juvenile justice policy. He is past president and fellow of the Western Society of Criminology and chair of the California Attorney General’s Research Advisory Committee. Currently a clinical professor at the University of Hawaii’s Department of Psychiatry, Krisberg also has taught at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Minnesota. In 1993 he received the August Vollmer Award, the American Society of Criminology’s most prestigious award. Books and articles to Krisberg’s credit include “Reinventing Juvenile Justice,” with James Austin (Sage Publications, 1993) and “A Sourcebook: Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders” with James C. Howell, Ph.D., J. David Hawkins, Ph.D., and John J. Wilson (Sage Publications, 1995). Krisberg received a master’s degree in criminology and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. NCCD develops model criminal and juvenile justice programs and offers policy advice to both state and local agencies. Its Web site offers statistics and resources on the link between child welfare and juvenile delinquency, the over-representation of minorities in the justice system and the threat of violence among minority youth.
 
Aaron Kupchik Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Justice Studies
Arizona State University
 
Address:
P.O. Box 870403
Tempe, AZ 85287
 
Phone:
480.965.7682
 
 
 
Aaron Kupchik, Ph.D., conducts research comparing the processes and outcomes of prosecuting adolescents in juvenile and criminal courts. He recently completed his Ph.D. in sociology at New York University. With Jeffrey Fagan, he co-authored Punishment, Proportionality and Jurisdictional Transfer of Adolescent Offenders, a study of whether states have reduced juvenile crime by transferring more adolescent offenders to adult criminal courts. In fall 2003, Kupchik assumes the post of assistant professor of justice studies at Arizona State University.
 
Michael Lindsey Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Social Work
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
 
Address:
525 W. Redwood St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
 
Phone:
410.706.8781
 
 
 
Lindsey trained as a social worker, with a specialization in mental health services research. He studies African American males' development in high-risk communities, depressed African American youths' access to mental health services, school-based violence prevention and early interventions, and university and community partnerships.
 
Richard C. Lumb Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Criminal Justice
SUNY College at Brockport
 
Address:
350 New Campus Dr.
Brockport, NY 14420-2914
 
Phone:
585.395.5631
 
 
 
Richard C. Lumb, Ph.D., is chair of the Criminal Justice Department at the State University of New York at Brockport. Previously, he served as director of the Research, Planning and Analysis Bureau at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) Police Department and as a director of the Carolinas Institute for Community Policing, also based in Charlotte. Lumb's 25-year policing career includes 10 years as a chief of police in two cities. He has a doctorate from Florida State University and a master's and bachelor's degree from the University of Southern Maine. Lumb has been on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and at Northern Michigan University. Research interests include neighborhood crime and violence; community and problem-oriented policing; police culture and application of Geographic Information Systems analysis that includes mapping and tracking crimes.
 
Doris L. MacKenzie Ph.D.
Director, Evaluation Research Group and Professor
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of Maryland
 
Address:
2220H LeFrak Hall
College Park, MD 20742
 
Phone:
301.405.3008
 
 
 
MacKenzie researches inmate adjustment to prison, the impact of intermediate sanctions on recidivism, long-term offenders, methods of predicting prison populations and boot camp prisons. She was a visiting scientist at the National Institute of Justice, where she advised federal, state and local jurisdictions on correctional boot camps, correctional policy, intermediate sanctions, research and evaluation techniques. She has directed several federally funded projects, including the Multi-Site Study of Correctional Boot Camps, Descriptive Study of Female Boot Camps, and the National Study of Juvenile Correctional Institutions. In 2007, MacKenzie as awarded a Fulbright grant to study new community corrections programs in China.
 
Kent Markus
Associate professor, director
National Center for Adoption Law & Policy
Capital University
 
Address:
Capital University Law School
303 E. Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43215
 
Phone:
614.236.6500
 
 
 
Markus is on leave from the law school, serving as chief legal counsel to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. Markus is founding director of the center, which is dedicated to child welfare and adoption systemic reform. He teaches in an extensive array of law fields, including adoption, criminal and administrative. Before coming to Capital in 1998, Markus was the U.S. Justice Department's deputy chief of staff and Attorney General Janet Reno's highest-ranking adviser. During his five years at Justice, Markus oversaw national implementation of the Brady Law and the 1994 Crime Act. He served as founding director of the Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and as the department's point person on crime policy, particularly juvenile crime and gun violence. Earlier, Markus was the Democratic National Committee's chief of staff.
 
Orlando L. Martinez
Martinez-Tjaden, LLP
 
Address:
1424 Madison St.
Grayson, GA 30017
 
Phone:
770.965.6288
 
 
 
Martinez has more than 40 years of experience in planning and managing programs serving youth and their families. He began consulting in 2003 to train agencies and states – such as Mississippi, Connecticut and Rhode Island – in improving services for at-risk youth. For the four previous years, he was commissioner of Georgia’s Department of Juvenile Justice. There, he introduced a case management system that reduced detention populations and expanded community treatment programs. Earlier, Martinez directed Colorado’s Division of Youth. His Web site derives its name from the firm's approach: integrated comprehensive client assessment and planning.
 
Gary Pavela
Director of Judicial Programs and Student Ethical Development
University of Maryland
 
Address:
2118 Mitchell Bldg.
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
 
Phone:
301.314.8209
 
 
 
Gary Pavela, J.D., is director of judicial programs at the University of Maryland and teaches in the University Honors Program. He was a law clerk to Chief Judge Alfred P. Murrah of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and served as a faculty member for the Federal Judicial Center in Washington D.C., the training arm of the United States Courts. In 2002 Pavela was designated a Fellow of the National Association of Colleges and University Attorneys, an honor bestowed on individuals who have “brought distinction to higher education and to the practice of law on behalf of colleges and universities across the nation.” Pavela serves on the advisory board of the Kenan Ethics Institute at Duke University and has been a consultant on student conduct issues at many leading universities, including Stanford University, the United States Naval Academy, Brown University, Smith College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His most recent article on college and university academic integrity systems, “Ten Principles of Academic Integrity: How Faculty Can Foster Student Honesty,” written with Don McCabe of Rutgers University, can be found in the May/June 2004 issue of Change magazine.
 
Jeffrey A. Roth Ph.D.
Associate Director for Research
The Jerry Lee Center of Criminology
University of Pennsylvania
 
Address:
3814 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
 
Phone:
215.746.6450
 
 
 
Jeffrey A. Roth, Ph.D., is associate director for research at the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania. He is the principal investigator of projects to investigate juvenile crime trends and to implement performance-based contracting for foster care provider agencies in Philadelphia. Previously, he directed the congressionally mandated impact evaluation of the 1994 assault weapons ban, as well as studies of the Clinton administration’s COPS program to put 100,000 police officers on the street; Maryland’s HotSpots Communities Program; Detroit’s Handgun Intervention Program; youth violence in the District of Columbia; and Baltimore’s Comprehensive Communities Program. As study director of the National Academy of Sciences panel on violence research, he co-edited the academy’s four-volume report, “Understanding and Preventing Violence.” He holds a doctorate in economics from Michigan State University.
 
David Roush Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Criminal Justice
Michigan State University
 
Address:
1407 S. Harrison Road
East Lansing, MI 48823
 
Phone:
517.432.1242
 
 
 
Roush directs the National Juvenile Detention Association’s Center for Research & Professional Development, a resource for juvenile detention and corrections professionals. A licensed counselor, Roush conducts research and provides training supporting the concept that youth develop healthy, law-abiding lifestyles through healthy relationships with healthy adults in healthy environments. Earlier, Roush spent 17 years directing the Calhoun County (Mich.) Juvenile Home. He is past chairman of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care's board of directors and past president of both the Michigan and the National Juvenile Detention Associations. With a federal grant, Roush developed the “Desktop Guide to Good Juvenile Detention Practice” (1996).
 
Lawrence Sherman
Director
Jerry Lee Center of Criminology
University of Pennsylvania
 
Address:
3814 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
 
Phone:
215.898.9216
 
 
 
The center researches the causes and prevention of crime, studying capital punishment, juvenile delinquency, homicide and restorative justice. Its director, Sherman, was appointed Penn's first professor of criminology in 2003, with a five-year term as chair of the criminology department. He served as president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science from 2001 to 2005 and was founding president of the Academy of Experimental Criminology from 1999 to 2001.
 
Melissa Sickmund Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate
National Center for Juvenile Justice
 
Address:
710 Fifth Ave., Third Floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
 
Phone:
412.227.6950
 
 
 
Melissa Sickmund, Ph.D., is a senior research associate at the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) in Pittsburgh, which she joined in 1986. Her work is focused on improving juvenile justice statistical information and facilitating the use of data to support decision-making at the national and local levels. Funding from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) supports much of her work. She is co-author of the “Juvenile Offenders and Victims” reports and is principal investigator for custody data for OJJDP’s National Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Project (the project’s “Statistical Briefing Book” is online: www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/index.html). She has also been involved with the National Juvenile Court Data Archive, authoring its annual “Juvenile Court Statistics and Offenders in Juvenile Court” and numerous other reports. Before joining NCJJ, Sickmund was a statistician with the Bureau of Justice Statistics and an analyst with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park.
 
Laurence Steinberg Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Temple University
 
Address:
1701 N. 13th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122
 
Phone:
215.204.7485
 
 
 
A nationally recognized expert on psychological development during adolescence, Steinberg researches topics including parent-child relationships, employment, high school reform and juvenile justice. His work has been funded by public and private organizations, including the federal departments of education and justice, the MacArthur and William T. Grant foundations and the Lilly Endowment. Steinberg has been a frequent consultant to state and federal agencies and lawmakers on child labor, secondary education, and juvenile justice policy. He is the author or editor of 10 books, including "Adolescence" (McGraw-Hill, 2005), a leading college textbook now in its seventh edition. Steinberg is president of the Society for Research on Adolescence; he also heads the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice.
 
Victor L. Streib
Professor
Pettit College of Law
Ohio Northern University
 
Address:
Tilton Hall of Law 183
Ada, OH 45810
 
Phone:
419.772.2207, x2205
 
 
 
Streib is an attorney specializing in violent crime and the death penalty and author of several books on the capital punishment of juveniles. He has represented juveniles convicted of murder before the U.S. Supreme Court and several state supreme courts.
 
Francisco Villarruel Ph.D.
Professor of Family and Child Ecology
Michigan State University
 
Address:
1407 S. Harrison Road
East Lansing, MI 48823-5286
 
Phone:
517.432.1317
 
 
 
Villarruel also is a senior research associate with MSU's Institute for Children, Youth and Families and the Julian Samora Research Institute, a policy research center focused on Latinos. Villarruel studies Latino youth and families, positive youth development, and developmental contextualism. He co-wrote "Lost Opportunities: The Reality of Latinos in the U.S. Criminal Justice System" (2004), which looked at factors underlying Latinos' overrepresentation and the special problems associated with prosecuting and treating substance abusers. Villarruel was co-principal investigator of a study that found Latino and Latina youth receive disparate and more punitive treatment than their white peers charged with the same types of offenses. The 2002 report, “¿Dónde Está la Justicia?” is available online at: www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/latino_rpt/index.html
 
Michael Wald
Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law, Emeritus
School of Law
Stanford University
 
Address:
Crown Quad 215
Stanford, CA 94305
 
Phone:
650.723.0322
 
 
 
Wald has had a distinguished career as an academic researcher and teacher. A leading national authority on legal policy toward children, he drafted the American Bar Association’s Standards Related to Child Abuse and Neglect, as well as major federal and state legislation regarding child welfare. Wald served as deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Clinton Administration, executive director of the San Francisco Department of Human Services, and senior adviser to the president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
 
Jeffery Walker Ph.D.
Professor of Criminal Justice
Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences
 
Address:
2801 S. University Ave.
Little Rock, AK 72204
 
Phone:
501.569.3083
 
 
 
Walker has taught at the university since 1990. His research focuses on the social/environmental factors of crime. He has obtained over $9 million in grants from the Department of Justice, National Institute of Drug Abuse and others. In 2001, Walker co-wrote an Arkansas study that found sexual offenders of children often lived near schools, child care centers and parks. Walker was president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in 2006-07. He's been editor of ACJS Today, editor of the Journal of Criminal Justice, and and editor in chief of the Journal of Critical Criminology.
 
Brian Wiersema
Senior Research Specialist
Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of Maryland
 
Address:
2209 LeFrak
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
 
Phone:
301.405.4735
 
 
 
Wiersema’s research centers on improving the amount and quality of data used to study violence, particularly the measurement of violent death and injury characteristics. Recently, Wiersema established the Maryland Violent Death Reporting System, part of a national public health surveillance system that monitors the incidence and detailed characteristics of violent death (homicides, suicides and deaths of undetermined manner) by linking official records such as police, medical examiner, crime lab and death certificate data. Wiersema's interests include various aspects of violence and social control (e.g., effects of firearms laws).
 
Kevin Wright Ph.D.
Professor and Director
School of Education and Human Devt.
Binghamton University, SUNY
 
Address:
AB G18
Binghamton, NY 13902
 
Phone:
607.777.2245
 
 
 
Issues of interest include crime control policy; correctional program/policy development and analysis; family life and delinquency; delinquency and substance abuse prevention; and prison administration.
 
Franklin Zimring
William G. Simon Professor of Law
School of Law
University of California, Berkeley
 
Address:
383 Boalt Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
 
Phone:
510.642.0854
 
 
 
Zimring’s major fields of interest are criminal justice, juvenile justice, sexual offenders and family law. He has served on the U.S. Department of Education Panel on Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free Schools and as an advisory member of the National Research Council Panel on Juvenile Crime. He has written or co-written many books on topics including deterrence, the changing legal world of adolescence, capital punishment, the scale of imprisonment and drug control.
 
 
ADVOCACY/NONPROFIT EXPERTS

Patricia Puritz
Executive Director
National Juvenile Defender Center
 
Address:
1350 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 304
Washington, DC 20036
 
Phone:
202.452.0010
 
 
 
The center was created in 1999 to build the juvenile defense bar's capacity to improve access to counsel and to the quality of representation for children in the justice system. NJDC provides support to public defenders, appointed counsel, law school clinical programs and nonprofit law centers to ensure quality representation. The center produces reports, training guides and practice-focused fact sheets to assist defenders.
 
Patricia Arthur
Senior Attorney
Juvenile Justice
National Center for Youth Law
 
Address:
405 14th St., 15th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
 
Phone:
510.835.8098
 
 
 
Arthur specializes in juvenile justice and complex litigation. She is co-founder and founding president of TeamChild, a Seattle-based, statewide advocacy organization that helps youth in trouble by addressing their basic health, housing and education needs. She has been lead counsel in many class-action lawsuits involving the rights of incarcerated youth and youth at risk of institutionalization.
 
James R. Bell
Executive Director
W. Haywood Burns Institute
 
Address:
180 Howard St., Suite 320
San Francisco, CA 94105
 
Phone:
415.321.4100 Ext.101
 
 
 
Bell founded the institute, which works to reduce the overrepresentation of youth of color in juvenile justice systems. He has worked on issues such as the juvenile death penalty, mental health services and "zero tolerance" in school discipline. The institute's Web site includes a clickable map with "State Disproportionate Minority Confinement Data" drawn from state data. http://www.burnsinstitute.org/dmc/
 

Shay Bilchik
Director
Center for Juvenile Justice Reform
Georgetown University

 
Address:
Washington, DC
 
Phone:
202.687.7656
 
 
 
Launched in spring 2007, the center supports public agency leaders in juvenile justice and related systems of care. Founding director Bilchik previously headed the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention before leading the Child Welfare League of America for seven years beginning in 2000.
 
Sarah Bryer
Director
Coalition for Juvenile Justice
National Juvenile Justice Network
 
Address:
1710 Rhode Island Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036
 
Phone:
202.467.0864 x105
 
 
 
The network helps state-based juvenile justice coalitions and organizations advocate for fair, equitable and developmentally appropriate adjudication and treatment for youth and families involved in the juvenile justice system. NJJN comprises 30 states. It receives funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
 
Ann Crowe
Research Associate
American Probation & Parole Association
 
Address:
2760 Research Park Drive
Lexington, KY 40511
 
Phone:
859.244.8198
 
 
 
Crowe specializes in juvenile justice issues for the international association. APPA -- which represents probation, parole and corrections professionals -- provides information, training and technical assistance on probation, parole and community-based corrections for both adult and juveniles.
 
David Doi
Executive Director
Coalition for Juvenile Justice
 
Address:
1211 Connecticut Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
 
Phone:
202.467.0864, Ext. 5
 
 
 
CJJ is a coalition of juvenile justice state advisory groups, guiding elected officials on juvenile justice issues. Its Web site provides fact sheets, lists of state juvenile justice specialists and a glossary of relevant terms about young offenders, law enforcement and juvenile courts.
 
Earl Dunlap
Executive Director
National Juvenile Detention Association
Eastern Kentucky University
 
Address:
301 Perkins Building, 521 Lancaster Ave.
Richmond, KY 40475
 
Phone:
859.622.6259
 
 
 
NJDA works on a series of state and federal grants promoting improved training and professional development for detention caregivers, reduced crowding in facilities and overall better quality of life in juvenile detention. Dunlap develops alternatives-to-detention and diversion programs with state and local officials nationwide.
 
Mishi Faruqee
Director
Juvenile Justice Project
Correctional Association of New York
 
Address:
135 E. 15th St.
New York, NY 10003
 
Phone:
212.254.5700, Ext. 315
 
 
 
The project promotes a stronger emphasis on community-based prevention and alternatives to jail and prison. It advocates for fair and effective responses to youth crime; produces reports, position papers and fact sheets that analyze juvenile justice policies and explore alternatives; educates the public and legislators about juvenile justice issues; and trains young people to help transform juvenile justice policies in New York.
 
Nancy Gannon Hornberger
Deputy Executive Director
Coalition for Juvenile Justice
 
Address:
1211 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 414
Washington, DC 20036
 
Phone:
202.462.0864 , Ext. 111
 
 
 
Pierce Gannon is deputy executive director of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ), a national organization based in Washington, D.C., that represents 56 governor-appointed state advisory groups on juvenile justice. She oversees CJJ’s media relations, public outreach, program development and fund raising. She has created and directed programs in the area of childhood gun violence prevention for schools, parents, pediatric health professionals and youth-serving organizations.
 
Kim Godfrey
Deputy Director
Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators
 
Address:
170 Forbes Road, Suite 106
Braintree, MA 02184
 
Phone:
718.843.2663
 
 
 
CJCA provides education and tools to help state juvenile correction directors improve services and conditions at youth facilities and programs. CJCA won the 2004 Innovations in American Government Award for its national performance-based standards program on residential programs' quality of life.
 
James A. Gondles
Executive Director
American Correctional Association
 
Address:
4380 Forbes Blvd.
Lanham, MD 20706
 
Phone:
703.224.0000
 
 
 
ACA is a non-profit, professional association involved in adult and juvenile corrections, community corrections, juvenile justice, and probation and parole. It works to improve correctional environments through training and professional development. ACA and the Commission on Accreditation for Corrections develop national standards for corrections, perform facility audits and accredit corrections facilities.
 
Peter Greenwood Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Greenwood and Associates
 
Address:
1936 Flathead Trail
Agoura, CA 91301
 
Phone:
818.889.0405
 
 
 
Greenwood has published widely in the areas of violence prevention, juvenile justice, criminal careers, sentencing, corrections, law enforcement and cyber crime. He was the founder of RAND’s Criminal Justice Program and is a member of the Homicide Research Working Group and is a past president of the California Association of Criminal Justice Research.
 
Samuel Halperin
Founder and Senior Fellow
American Youth Policy Forum
 
Address:
1836 Jefferson Place, NW
Washington, DC 20036
 
Phone:
202.775.9731
 
 
 
Samuel Halperin is the founder of and a senior fellow at the American Youth Policy Forum in Washington, D.C. He has held leadership positions in academia, the federal government, a foundation and nonprofit organizations for over 40 years. Halperin has served as president of the Institute for Educational Leadership, deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and Congressional Fellow of the American Political Science Association, where he worked on U.S. Senate and House of Representatives committees dealing with major education legislation. He has also served as study director of Youth and America’s Future: The William T. Grant Foundation Commission on Work, Family and Citizenship.
 
Karen Harp
Media Contact
National Juvenile Justice Prosecution Center (NJJPC)
American Prosecutors Research Institute
 
Address:
99 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 510
Alexandria, VA 22314
 
Phone:
703.549.9222
 
 
 
NJJPC provides training and collects and disseminates information to enhance prosecutors’ abilities to prosecute and prevent juvenile crime.
 
Mary Ellen Johnson
Executive Director
The Pendulum Foundation
 
Address:
2860 So. Circle Drive, #123
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
 
Phone:
720.314.1402
 
 
 
The Pendulum Foundation's mission is to physically, emotionally and spiritually free all young people whose childhoods have been lost in Colorado’s prison system. Pendulum is dedicated to educating the public about the issue of children in adult prisons, and in transforming the lives of all those youthful offenders who are currently behind bars.
 
Stuart Kantor
Senior Public Affairs Associate
Urban Institute
 
Address:
2100 M St. NW
Washington, DC 20037
 
Phone:
202.261.5283
 
 
 
The nonpartisan research institute investigates, analyzes and seeks solutions to U.S. social and economic problems. It works on issues involving work and income, housing and communities, child welfare, and civic engagement and philanthropy. Urban has 10 policy centers, including those focusing on low-income working families, economic security, education, health policy, criminal justice and taxes.
 
David Kass
Executive Director
Fight Crime: Invest In Kids
 
Address:
1212 New York Avenue
Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
 
Phone:
202.776.0027 ext. 119
 
 
 
Kass coordinates strategic planning and oversees day-to-day operations at Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. Previously, he served as deputy assistant secretary for legislation at the U.S. Department of Housing. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is a national, bipartisan, nonprofit anti-crime organization of more than 3,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, other law enforcement leaders and violence survivors. The group informs the public and policymakers about relevant findings, and urges investment in programs proven effective by research.
 
Jack King
Director, Public Affairs
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
 
Address:
1150 18th St., NW, Suite 950
Washington, DC 20036
 
Phone:
202.872.8600 Ext. 228
 
 
 
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) is made up of criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, active U.S. military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness within America's criminal justice system. King ia spokesman for NACDL.
 
Marsha Levick
Legal Director
Juvenile Law Center
 
Address:
The Philadelphia Building, 4th Floor
1315 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19107
 
Phone:
215.625.0551
 
 
 
Levick, an advocate for juvenile and women's rights, co-founded the center. She has represented children in delinquency and dependency proceedings and litigated challenges to conditions of confinement in juvenile institutions. She has worked to develop standards for prosecuting juveniles in the adult criminal justice system, and she's developing strategies to address girls' special needs in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems.
 
Bart Lubow
Director, Program for High Risk Youth
Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative
Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF)
 
Address:
701 St. Paul St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
 
Phone:
410.547.3671
 
 
 
The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative has been the flagship of AECF’s efforts to increase the odds that youth in the juvenile justice system make successful transitions to adulthood.
 
Daniel Macallair
Executive Director
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
 
Address:
54 Dore St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
 
Phone:
415.621.5661, ext. 310
 
 
 
Macallair is the co-founder of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. His expertise is in the development and analysis of correctional policy for youth and adult offenders. He has implemented model programs throughout the country. His programs have received national recognition and were cited as exemplary models by the United States Department of Justice and Harvard University's Innovations in American Government program. He authored a 1999 study on youth curfew.
 
Mike Males Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
 
Address:
54 Dore St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
 
Phone:
415.621.5661
 
 
 
Males researches youth crime, drug abuse, pregnancy and economics. He is the author of “Kids & Guns: How Politicians, Experts and the Press Fabricate Fear of Youth” (Common Courage Press, 2001) and co-author of “California Youth Crime Declines: The Untold Story” (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, 2006) and “Testing Incapacitation Theory: Youth Crime and Incarceration in California” (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, 2006) showing that massive declines in the imprisonment of California youth accompanied large declines in both serious and misdemeanor crime by youths of all races over the last three decades.
 
Karen Maline
Director of Information and Media Services
Juvenile Justice Evaluation Center (JJEC)
Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA)
 
Address:
777 N. Capitol St. N.E., Suite 801
Washington, DC 20002
 
Phone:
202.842.9330
 
 
 
JRSA conducts and publishes research on justice issues, provides training and technical assistance and maintains a clearinghouse of state criminal justice activities. JJEC works to improve the evaluation of juvenile justice programs in the states. Its Web site offers links to state resources on juvenile justice issues.
 
Patrick McCarthy
Vice President
System and Service Reform
Annie E. Casey Foundation
 
Address:
701 St. Paul St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
 
Phone:
410.223.2852
 
 
 
McCarthy oversees the foundation's work in income security; child welfare; general, reproductive and mental health; substance abuse; juvenile justice; education; and early childhood and youth development.
 
Mary Mentaberry
Executive Director
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
 
Address:
1041 N. Virginia St.
P.O. Box 8970
Reno, NV 89507
 
Phone:
775.784.6012 (main)
 
 
 
Mentaberry, executive director since 2004, has worked for the council since 1969. The membership organization seeks to improve the standards, practices and effectiveness of the juvenile courts and other courts with jurisdiction over families and children. Its research division, the National Center for Juvenile Justice, features profiles of state juvenile justice systems at http://www.ncjj.org/stateprofiles/.
 
Lorri Montgomery
Communications Manager
National Center for State Courts (NCSC)
 
Address:
300 Newport Ave.
Williamsburg, VA 23185
 
Phone:
757.259.1525
 
 
 
NCSC collects and interprets data on court operations and provides information on "best practices" for improving state courts — including juvenile courts. Its Web site offers links to hundreds of juvenile justice resources and publications.
 
C. Kevin Morrison
Attorney
Bryant Law Firm
 
Address:
950 Kennedy Building
321 S. Boston Ave.
Tulsa, OK 74103-3313
 
Phone:
918.587.4200
 
 
Kevin Morrison is an attorney and child advocate. Formerly of Tulsa Children's Law, he handles legal matters involving children, including representing parents and children involved in juvenile court proceedings, adoptions, guardianships and special education matters. Morrison has significant experience in the juvenile court system. In 1994 he began representing children in abuse and neglect cases on a pro bono basis while continuing his commercial litigation practice. A few years later he left private practice to become an assistant district attorney in Tulsa County’s juvenile court, where he handled a civil child abuse docket adjudicating custody and termination of parental rights issues. In 2001 he became a judge in the Tulsa County juvenile court where he was responsible for emergency custody hearings and the juvenile delinquency detention docket. In 2002 Morrison moved to the Washington, D.C. area, serving as a senior attorney with the National Juvenile Justice Prosecution Center, where he trained juvenile court prosecutors, and wrote and spoke on juvenile justice issues. Morrison is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma law school and received his bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University.
 
David Muhlhausen
Policy Analyst
Center for Data Analysis
Heritage Foundation
 
Address:
214 Massachusetts Ave., N.E..
Washington, DC 20002
 
Phone:
202.608.6209
 
 
 
Muhlhausen is an expert on criminal justice programs, particularly law enforcement grant programs administered by the U.S. Department of Justice. While a staff member of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, he specialized in crime and juvenile justice policy. He has also served as a manager at a juvenile correctional facility in Baltimore.
 
Tracy Godwin Mullins
Director
National Youth Court Center (NYCC)
American Probation and Parole Association (APPA)
 
Address:
2760 Research Park Drive
Lexington, KY 40511
 
Phone:
859.244.8215
 
 
 
NYCC serves as a central point of contact for youth court programs across the nation. It serves as an information clearinghouse, provides training and technical assistance, and develops resource materials on how to develop and enhance youth court programs in the United States.
 
Juan Sanchez Ph.D.
President and CEO
Southwest Key Program, Inc.
 
Address:
3000 S. IH-35, Suite 410
Austin, TX 78704
 
Phone:
512.462.2181
 
 
 
Sánchez is a leader in the field of juvenile justice. He serves on the board of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, as an associate with the Vera Institute of Justice, as technical assistance provider for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Alternative Initiative and as an appointee to the National Council of La Raza’s board of directors. Southwest Key Programs operates over 45 programs in seven states, including juvenile justice and family programs, safe shelters for immigrant children, alternative schools, youth empowerment and fatherhood programs, job creation initiatives, and child care brokerage services.
 
Robert Schwartz
Executive Director
Juvenile Law Center
 
Address:
The Philadelphia Building
1315 Walnut St., 4th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
 
Phone:
215.625.0551
 
 
 
JLC provides legal representation and services to children under the care of child welfare or juvenile justice systems, residential treatment facilities and adult prisons. A co-founder of the center, Schwartz has brought class-action litigation over institutional conditions and probation functions. He was chair of the American Bar Association's Juvenile Justice Committee from 1992 to 1998 and was a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice.
 
Carole Shauffer
Executive Director
Youth Law Center
 
Address:
417 Montgomery St., Suite 900
San Francisco, CA 94104
 
Phone:
415.543.3379
 
 
 
The center -- with offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. -- works nationally to ensure humane treatment of children in adult jails, juvenile detention facilities, state institutions and child welfare systems. It pushes for improvement through training, technical assistance, negotiation or, as a last resort, litigation. Shauffer has extensive experience in child welfare and juvenile justice reform. She has written about special education in juvenile institutions, coordination of services to children, the rights of gay youth and the reasonable efforts requirement.
 
Mark Soler
Exectuive Director
Center for Children’s Law and Policy (CCLP
 
Address:
1701 K St., NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20006
 
Phone:
202.637.0377, Ext. 114
 
 
 
CCLP is a public interest law and policy organization focused on reform of juvenile justice and other systems that affect troubled and at-risk children, and protection of the rights of children in such systems.
 
Kim Brooks Tandy
Executive Director
Children's Law Center
 
Address:
104 East Seventh St., Second Floor
Covington, KY 41011
 
Phone:
859.431.3313
 
 
 
Brooks is founder and executive director of the Children’s Law Center Inc., an organization in Covington, Ky., that aims to protect the rights of Kentucky’s children through legal representation, research, policy development and the training of attorneys and other professionals. Brooks is coordinator for the Central Juvenile Defender Center, a regional affiliate office of the American Bar Association’s National Juvenile Defender Center in Washington, D.C. She teaches juvenile law and is an adjunct faculty member at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law. She has lectured and consulted on juvenile justice and related issues throughout the country. Brooks received her bachelor’s degree in social work from Northern Kentucky University and her law degree from the Salmon P. Chase College of Law.
 
Malcolm Young
Executive Director
The Sentencing Project
 
Address:
514 10th St. N.W., Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20004
 
Phone:
202.628.0871
 
 
 
The project promotes decreased reliance on incarceration and increased use of more effective and humane alternatives. It has helped establish alternative sentencing programs in more than 22 states and consulted on issues such as juvenile detention, racial disparity and the trial of juveniles in adult court.
 
 
 
James Backstrom
County Attorney
Dakota County, Minn.
 
Address:
1560 Highway 55
Hastings, MN 55033
 
Phone:
651.438.4438
 
 
 
Backstrom has been the Dakota County (Minn.) Attorney since 1987. He previously served as an assistant county attorney for nine years, including five years when he headed the office’s civil division. He is a member of the board of directors of the National District Attorneys Association and served as its vice president from1997 to 2000. Backstrom co-chaired the association’s Juvenile Justice Committee from 1994 to 2001. He is also a past president and board member of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association. In addition to his administrative duties, he has helped prosecute a number of important criminal cases, and in 1998 successfully argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Backstrom has been active in passing legislation aimed at improving Minnesota’s criminal justice system, and his office has established several programs dealing with crime prevention, juvenile crime and victim services. A frequent speaker at legal education forums and author of numerous articles and training materials, Backstrom was named by Minnesota Lawyer as one of the state’s top 12 attorneys in 2002. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from the University of Minnesota and a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.
 
Michael Courlander
Director of Public Affairs
U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC)
 
Address:
One Columbus Circle N.E.
Washington, DC 20002
 
Phone:
202.502.4590
 
 
 
The USSC establishes sentencing policies and practices for federal courts; advises Congress and the executive branch in the development of crime policy; and collects, analyzes and distributes information on federal crime and sentencing issues.
 
J. Robert Flores
Administrator
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
 
Address:
810 Seventh St. N.W.
Washington, DC 20531
 
Phone:
202.307.5911
 
 
Web:
 
Flores is the administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, overseeing the public safety issues of juvenile crime and youth victimization. His responsibilities include identifying effective strategies for addressing juvenile crime through research; coordinating effective programs and approaches in juvenile justice issues; providing technical assistance and training; disseminating information; and awarding funds to states to support local programming nationwide. Before his appointment, Flores was the vice president and senior counsel for the National Law Center for Children and Families in Virginia. From 1989 to 1997, he was senior trial attorney and acting deputy chief in the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division, of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he supervised several national child pornography investigations. Previously, Flores was an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, where he successfully prosecuted numerous child sexual abuse cases. In 1999, he was appointed to the Child Online Protection Act Commission. Flores earned his doctorate of laws degree from Boston University School of Law and his Bachelor of Science in business administration from Boston University School of Management.
 
Kathi Grasso
Senior Juvenile Justice Policy and Legal Advisor
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
U.S. Department of Justice
 
Address:
810 Seventh St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20531
 
Phone:
202.616.7567
 
 
 
OJJDP provides data on juvenile crime, delinquency prevention and violence and victimization. Its online Statistical Briefing Book ( http://.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/index.html) and J
uvenile Facts and Figures Web site (http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/facts/facts.html) offer direct access to statistics and trends in juvenile justice and victimization.
 
Jerrauld Jones
Chief Judge
Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court
 
Address:
800 E. City Hall Ave.
Richmond, VA 23510
 
Phone:
757.664.7341
 
 
 
Jones is nationally recognized as a leader in the movement for juvenile detention reform, and advocates for more academic and social programs to thwart juvenile delinquency. Prior to serving as a judge, Jones was appointed Director of the Department of Juvenile Justice for the Commonwealth of Virginia. As head of the youth authority, Jones was responsible for the incarceration, rehabilitation, and transitional reentry of juvenile offenders in the state.
 
Cindy Lederman
Presiding Judge
Miami-Dade Juvenile Court
11th Judicial Circuit-State of Florida
 
Address:
3300 N.W. 27th Ave.
Miami, FL 33142
 
Phone:
305.638.6087
 
 
 
Lederman has been presiding judge since 1999. Earlier, she served as first administrative judge of the Dade County Domestic Violence Court, which she helped establish. Lederman is known for using scientific research to guide custody decisions. From 1997 to 2003, her courtroom served as the base for a national demonstration project to curb family violence. The intervention program provided intensive services to both young children and their mothers to develop strong parent-child bonds. Lederman serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics task force on foster care and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges' board of trustees.
 

James Payne
Director
Juvenile Division
Indiana Department of Child Services

 
Address:
2451 N. Keystone Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46218
 
Phone:
317.924.7501, Ext. 502
 
 
 
Payne, a former judge, was responsible for the development of a nationally recognized detention center, case management software for juvenile justice and many award-winning programs. He speaks frequently around the country on issues of delinquency, dependency, case management and juvenile justice practice and policy, and has served on many boards and executive committees developing juvenile court policy both in Indiana and throughout the country.
 
Peter Reinharz
Managing Attorney
Nassau County Attorney's Office
 
Address:
1 West St.
New York, NY 11501
 
Phone:
516.571.3000
 
 
Reinharz is managing attorney in the Nassau County (N.Y.) Attorney’s Office, where his responsibilities include oversight of family court. From 1987 to 2002, Reinharz was New York City’s chief juvenile prosecutor, as chief of the family court division of the New York City Law Department. During that time, he drafted and lobbied for legislation in the fields of criminal law and family law; he also wrote “Killer Kids, Bad Law: Tales of the Juvenile Justice System,” (Barricade Books, 1996). Previously, Reinharz was a deputy division chief for the city’s law department and a borough chief and staff attorney for the family court division of the New York County Corporation Counsel’s office. Since 1996, under appointment by Gov. George Pataki, Reinharz has served on the state’s juvenile justice advisory group. He has been a television commentator on juvenile crime. He has testified before Congress and published numerous articles on youth crime, violence and juvenile justice reform. He is a contributing editor of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, where he writes on subjects including criminal and juvenile justice.
 

Jose Rodriguez
Circuit Judge
Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida

 
Address:
2000 E. Michigan St.
Orlando, FL 32817
 
Phone:
407.836.7957
 
 
 
Jose R. Rodriguez, administrative judge of the Juvenile Division of the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida, presides over Orange County Juvenile Drug Court’s three components: Delinquency, Dependency and Re-Entry. The court is the longest running drug court in the Ninth Judicial Circuit and was nationally recognized as a mentor court in 2000 by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Drug Court Program Office. Rodriguez is a faculty member of a U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance pilot program on achieving cultural proficiency to enhance positive outcomes in drug treatment courts. He also is working on the development and design of a national model to integrate the accountability of drug treatment courts and to reduce the demand for drugs through public housing policies. He has been an adjunct professor at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, a faculty member of the Florida Judicial College and Florida College of Advanced Judicial Studies, and a lecturer at the Circuit and County Judges’ educational conferences. Rodriguez received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida and his law degree from Florida State University College of Law.
 
Vincent Schiraldi MSW
Director
Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS)
District of Columbia Government
 
Address:
1000 Mt. Olivet Road, NE
Washington, DC 20002
 
Phone:
202.576.8175
 
 
 
Schiraldi founded the Justice Policy Institute and the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. He's the director of DYRS, whose mission is to improve public safety and give court-involved youths the opportunity to become more productive citizens through community-based services such as mentoring, home-based counseling, individual counseling, after-school enrichment and substance abuse programs.
 
Ann Stahl
Manager of Data Collection
National Juvenile Court Data Archive (NJCDA)
National Center for Juvenile Justice
 
Address:
710 Fifth Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
 
Phone:
412.227.6950
 
 
 
The National Juvenile Court Data Archive houses the automated records of cases handled by courts with juvenile jurisdiction. The Archive was established by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, within the U.S. Department of Justice, to promote access to automated juvenile court data sets for juvenile justice research and policymaking efforts. This web site was developed to inform researchers about the available data sets and the procedures for use and access.  

 

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