Five Recordings From Youth Justice at a Crossroads

In June 2023, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, in part­ner­ship with the Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty Jus­tice Lab, host­ed Youth Jus­tice at a Cross­roads. The vir­tu­al event focused on how to pri­or­i­tize com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty and the well-being of young peo­ple who encounter the legal sys­tem. The agen­da reflect­ed the cli­mate of height­ened con­cern about gun vio­lence, crime, youth in deten­tion, young peo­ple’s men­tal health, youth jus­tice sys­tem staffing short­ages and more. Ses­sions offered an audi­ence of youth jus­tice sys­tem lead­ers, prac­ti­tion­ers and ser­vice providers both prag­mat­ic short-term solu­tions and build­ing blocks for longer-term actions to sus­tain the momen­tum of youth jus­tice reform. 

Record­ings of the five ses­sions are avail­able below and on YouTube.

Keynote Address

• Keynote by Liz Ryan, admin­is­tra­tor, Office of Juve­nile Jus­tice and Delin­quen­cy Pre­ven­tion, U.S. Depart­ment of Justice
• Intro­duc­tion by Nate Balis, direc­tor, Juve­nile Jus­tice Strat­e­gy Group, The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Address­ing Short-term Chal­lenges: Respond­ing to the Recent Surge in Gun Vio­lence in Ways that Help and Don’t Harm

• James ​“JT” Timp­son, man­ag­ing direc­tor, Com­mu­ni­ty Vio­lence Ini­tia­tives, Roca Impact Institute
• John Choi, coun­ty attor­ney, Ram­sey Coun­ty (St. Paul), Minnesota
• Mod­er­at­ed by Nate Balis

Address­ing Short-term Chal­lenges: Capac­i­ty Chal­lenges in Both Facil­i­ties and Communities

• Tom Woods, senior asso­ciate, The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Vin­ny Schi­ral­di, sec­re­tary, Mary­land Depart­ment of Juve­nile Services

Address­ing Long-term Chal­lenges: Build­ing the Capac­i­ty of Com­mu­ni­ties, Fam­i­lies, and Young Peo­ple to Thrive… With­out the Fear of Violence

• Albi­no Gar­cia, exec­u­tive direc­tor, La Plazi­ta Institute
• Cymone Fuller, co-direc­tor, the Restora­tive Jus­tice Project, Impact Justice
• Mod­er­at­ed by Vid­hya Anan­thakr­ish­nan, co-direc­tor, Youth Jus­tice Ini­tia­tives, Colum­bia Jus­tice Lab

Address­ing Long-term Chal­lenges: Right-siz­ing Sys­tems to dDe­liv­er Effec­tive Inter­ven­tions Where, When and How They Will Do the Most Good

• Clin­ton Lacey, pres­i­dent and CEO, Cred­i­ble Mes­sen­ger Men­tor­ing Movement
• Judge Kather­ine Lucero, direc­tor, Office of Youth and Com­mu­ni­ty Restora­tion, Cal­i­for­nia Health and Human Ser­vices Agency
• Mod­er­at­ed by Patrick McCarthy, senior fel­low, Youth Jus­tice Ini­tia­tives, Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty Jus­tice Lab