Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2015, $204,205)
The OJJDP FY 2015 Smart on Juvenile Justice: Enhancing Youth Access to Justice Initiative will provide funding to (1) develop effective, statewide, well-resourced model juvenile indigent defense legal delivery systems; (2) develop and implement standards of practice and policy for the effective management of such delivery systems; and (3) develop state or regional resource centers to help state, tribal, and local juvenile defense systems enhance the quality of legal representation, leverage resources, and collect and analyze data to measure the effectiveness of specific initiatives. This initiative will provide cost-effective and innovative training for the juvenile indigent defense bar, including public defenders and court-appointed counsel working on behalf of juvenile indigent defendants, particularly in traditionally underserved locations, including rural areas.
Category 1: Youth Access to Justice State Reform Planning Grants will support state and tribal efforts to develop strategies and policies that will ensure that every juvenile receives the guarantees of due process and equal protection and that their constitutional rights are honored. The Washington State Office of Public Defense (OPD) seeks funding from OJJDP to develop a blueprint for improving its juvenile indigent defense system, and to deliver training and tools to current juvenile indigent defense attorneys so they can better represent their clients and connect them to critical civil legal services. OPD plans to achieve these goals by: convening and staffing a juvenile indigent defense strategic planning workgroup; delivering five training sessions to juvenile indigent defense attorneys on adolescent development and trauma-informed representation; and developing a series of web tutorials describing the collateral consequences of juvenile adjudications and demonstrating how community agencies, law schools and bar associations can assist juveniles to obtain legal services to minimize the negative impact in the areas of employment, education, housing, health care, record expungement, and other aftercare needs.
CA/NCF