AIRED: October 27, 2014– 11 am PST
TITLE: “Champions, Defending Children’s Rights in Adult Court”
SPECIAL GUEST: Kim Dvorchak
http://www.storey.com/author.php?ID=503285
According to the Campaign for Youth Justice in Washington DC, as many as 250,000 youth annually are prosecuted as adults. Research suggests that the prosecution of children as adults does little to deter crime or reduce recidivism among youthful offenders; indeed some research has found greater risks to public safety among children transferred to the adult system.
At last count, eleven states have passed laws that keep most young offenders out of adult jails and prisons. In Colorado, Kim Dvorchak, the executive director of the Colorado Juvenile Defender Coalition (CJDC), said that since these new laws have taken affect, the number of young people put directly into the adult system in Colorado has dropped by nearly 85 percent and that the rate of adult jailing of minors has fallen by 92 percent, with no increase in juvenile crime.
Join us to explore the issues and learn about a powerful movement that is spreading across the nation thanks to the hard work of organizations such as the CJDC .
ABOUT KIM DVORCHAK
Kim Dvorchak is a founder of the Colorado Juvenile Defender Coalition and its first Executive Director. In her career as a juvenile defender, Ms. Dvorchak represented youth in juvenile court, criminal court, and appellate court, specializing in the defense of children prosecuted as adults.
Ms. Dvorchak litigated the constitutionality of prosecutorial direct file in the Colorado Supreme Court and spearheaded comprehensive reforms to curtail the prosecution and jailing of youth as adults.
Ms. Dvorchak presents continuing legal education workshops across the country on juvenile law, litigation strategies, and policies that improve the treatment of youth.
In 2009 Kim Dvorchak was awarded the Robert E. Shepherd Jr. Leadership Award for Excellence in Juvenile Defense by the National Juvenile Defender Center. Kim Dvorchak was appointed to the Juvenile Justice Task Force of the Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, and was appointed to the Interim Committee to Study Juvenile Defense, and the Legislative Task Force to Study School Discipline.
