Policy Advocacy
Youth defenders play an enormous role in sparking systemic reform to eliminate institutionalized racism and disproportionate policies against youth of color, in addition to essential individual case advocacy. Youth defenders are encouraged to participate in the legislative process to advocate for more favorable laws for all youth. The legislative and systemic advocacy action plan offered in this section will provide advocates with recommendations for reforms that they can spearhead in their respective jurisdictions.
Available Resources
- Ensuring Access for Youth of Color- Raising Race in Policy Advocacy
- Sample Legislative Advocacy Briefs
- Detention (Maryland Office of the Public Defender)
- Diversion (Maryland Office of the Public Defender)
- Minimum Age (Maryland Office of the Public Defender)
- Probation (Maryland Office of the Public Defender)
- Raise the Age (Maryland Office of the Public Defender)
- Youth Prisons (Maryland Office of the Public Defender)
- Sample Legislative Testimony
- Alternatives to Policing Roundtable Testimony (District of Columbia)
- Comprehensive Policing & Justice Reform Amendment Act Testimony (District of Columbia)
- Juvenile Interrogation Protection Act Testimony (Maryland)
- Juvenile Justice Reform Act Testimony (Maryland)
- Metropolitan Police Department Performance Oversight Hearing (District of Columbia)
- Sample Policy Reports
- More Mature Miranda
- Report and Recommendations to Address Race in Washington’s Juvenile Legal System (Washington)
- Report to the Governor and the General Assembly of Virginia: Virginia’s Juvenile Justice System 2021 (Virginia)
- Report to the Rules Review Subcommittee of the Maryland Judiciary’s Committee on Equal Justice (Maryland)
- Sample Racial Justice Legislation & Policy