Juvenile Justice

(June 2001)

Bryan Decker, issue editor, writes:

I write this note on June 5, 2001 after just hearing that the Cambridge City Council voted not to extend municipal voting rights to its young adults 16 and older. While this is disappointing, the fact that there was a vote at all shows how young people are increasingly seeking a political voice, and are increasingly politically active. Every Guild member, practicing in whatever area, should support this trend and lend support to youth political groups. The articles in this issue address how far we need to go."
Vera Schneider, a Boston solo practitioner and Guild Board member, gives a primer on the obstacles faced by children and their advocates in the bizarre world of Children In Need of Services (CHINS) cases.
Jean Zotter, former director of the Family Advocacy Program (FAP), and Pamela Tames, an attorney with the Program, give us an account of FAP and its activism to publicize and disrupt the link between poverty and poor health of poor children.
Ken King, an attorney with the Suffolk Law School Juvenile Justice Center and longtime youth advocate, updates us on Boston's position that lack of a hall pass not only leads to detention, but also to a loss of any and all Fourth Amendment rights.
On a lighter note, our intrepid reporter and Board Member Angela Davidovich, whose tongue is surgically attached to her cheek, reports on this year's Annual Testimonial Dinner (with some spice added by Paromita Shah).

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