Beyond the Bench 2017 - Wednesday, December 20, 2017
PLENARY - TWO PERSPECTIVES ON THE PROSPECTS FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORMS AFFECTING YOUNG PEOPLE
8:00 A.M.-9:00 A.M.
Hon. Tricia Bigelow, Presiding Justice of the Courts of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Eight
This unique two-part plenary brings together perspectives on criminal and juvenile justice system reform, with a particular focus on the impact on young people. The first part will provide a former prosecutor’s view of the current approach to young offenders and a vision for a better justice system. The second part will be a dialogue on reform options and opportunities with a focus on race and the experiences of youthful offenders, informed by the concrete knowledge of someone personally impacted by the criminal justice system and now leading reform efforts.
Part I
A Prosecutor’s Vision for a Better Justice System
In his TED Talk, Adam Foss, a former prosecutor with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office in Boston, suggests that, when a kid commits a crime, the US justice system has a choice: to either prosecute to the full extent of the law, or take a step back and ask whether saddling young people with a criminal record is always
Part II
The Case of Kalief Browder: A Conversation on Race and the Justice System between Akeem Browder and Adam Foss
The story of 16-year-old Kalief Browder—held for three years on Rikers Island for a crime he did not commit, due to his inability to pay bail—is illustrative of the need for a reformed justice system. Akeem Browder, Kalief’s brother, and Adam Foss will discuss the role played by race, institutionalized racism, charging decisions, and poverty in the mass incarceration of young African Americans, and the possibilities for reform at the grassroots and in state and federal policy.
Akeem Browder, Founder & Executive Director, Kalief Browder Foundation
Adam Foss, Founder, Prosecutor Impact
Concurrent Workshops 3
9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m.
This session presents an overview of self-assessment tools that are used by Juvenile Drug Courts, Family Dependency Drug Courts and Recovery-Oriented Drug Courts. Using these tools that systematically look at program goals, challenges and successes, workshop leaders will address best practices and national standards and a review of the tools, technology (web-based) and structure needed to ensure positive outcomes including training needs and identification of valuable service system enhancements.
Each tool is unique and all contribute to identifying:
- current practices;
- types of training and technical assistance needed to improve practices and technology transfer; and
- changes and outcomes through the use of data and evaluation.
Time will be focused on both the process of conducting self-assessments and on how to maximize the resulting information to increase program outcomes and to educate team members, key players and the community at large regarding collaborative justice court effectiveness.
Phil Breitenbucher, Director, Children and Family Futures, Inc.
Noreen Plumage, Statewide Drug and DUI Court Coordinator, State Court Administrators Office, State of South Dakota
Terrence Walton, Chief Operating Officer, National Association of Drug Court Professional
In the early 90s, California became the first state to mandate completion of a one-year batterer’s intervention program for individuals convicted of domestic violence and eligible for probation. Now, batterer’s intervention programs are used as a tool, not only by criminal judges, but also family law and juvenile judges to address domestic violence within a family. In this session, participants will learn about the basic components of a batterer’s program, including: legal requirements of California’s 52-week program, how clinical assessments are used as a tool, how certain elements of group therapy may be beneficial, and the difference between anger management and batterer’s intervention classes.
Alyce LaViolette, Psychotherapist/Trainer/Expert Witness/Consultant
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This workshop provides, for child welfare stakeholders, practitioners or bench officers, a better understanding of the importance of considering youths’ sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in order to ensure equity for and protection of all youth who enter the child welfare system and how it impacts practice, system culture, and interaction with these youth.
Hon. Denine Guy, Presiding Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Cruz
Rob Waring, Staff Attorney, East Bay Children’s Law Offices
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This workshop will discuss how DJJ incorporates the Integrated Behavior Treatment Model into the culture and continuum of care provided to youth committed to DJJ. The workshop will begin with a discussion of the role played by probation in preparing a youth for commitment to DJJ and will include discussion of the assessments and treatment provided by psychologists.
Chief Mark Bonini, Chief Probation Officer, Amador County Probation Department
Christienne Sanders, Associate Director, California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Justice
After several years of successful implementation, and over 5,000 school district professionals trained with the Foster Youth Education Toolkit, the Alliance for Children’s Rights has developed a companion toolkit for use by all parties involved in supporting foster/probation youth educational success, including judges, social workers, probation officers, minor’s attorneys, public defenders, and attorneys for parents. For each subject area (for example, school of origin and immediate enrollment) the companion toolkit includes basics of education law, best practice guides, and sample tools such as hearing checklists, minute order and court report language, and informational worksheets which were all developed with input from the parties this is directed toward. This presentation will share highlights of the new toolkit, including an in-depth look at one section, as well as an inside perspective from a current judge and a foster youth about the need for tools like these in the courtroom and how to utilize them.
Hon. Donna Q. Groman, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles
Alaina Moonves-Leb, Education Attorney, Alliance for Children’s Rights
Former Youth (TBD)
This workshop will provide important information to dependency attorneys working with noncitizen clients (children and adults) in light of recent changes in federal immigration policy and enforcement priorities. We will focus on what happens when a parent is taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), what responsibilities ICE has when detaining immigrants who have children in the U.S., and what responsibilities California child welfare agencies have when working with children whose parents have been detained. We will also discuss the potential immigration consequences to parents who have been involved in the child welfare system. Finally, we will review three common forms of immigration relief that may intersect with juvenile court involvement including (1) Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), a form of federal immigration relief that depends on state judicial determinations about child welfare and custody; (2) U nonimmigrant status, a visa available for victims of violent crimes; and (3) T visas, a visa for victims of labor or sex trafficking.
Rachel Prandini, Immigrant Youth Project Attorney, Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Cecilia Saco, Supervising Children’s Social Worker, Los Angeles County
Hayley Upshaw, Deputy Public Defender, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
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In 2016, according to the Department of Defense, 14,900 service members were sexually assaulted and suffered Military Sexual Trauma (MST). MST is sexual assault or repeated, threatening sexual harassment that a veteran experiences during military service, which is often goes unreported, undiagnosed, and untreated. Symptoms may present as depression and other difficulties that can negatively affect the victim, his or her military service, family, and future employment.
Hon. Eileen C. Moore, Associate Justice, California Courts of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District
Dwight Stirling, Esq., Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder, Veterans Legal Institute
This workshop will provide an overview of Welfare and Institutions Code section 827 and related confidentiality laws. Participants will learn how to access juvenile case files from different agencies or entities, including the court, child welfare agency, probation, law enforcement agencies, and school districts. The presentation will also identify specific types of information such as education, mental health, and medical records, that may be obtained and shared by and among specific individuals and agencies, such as caregivers, social workers, school personnel, and other agencies. Participants will apply their knowledge to case scenarios and give feedback on the challenges related to this code section.
Rebecca Gudeman, Senior Director, Health, National Center for Youth Law
Zepur Simonian, Attorney, Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles
Alyssa Skolnick, Senior Deputy County Counsel, Office of the County Counsel, County of Los Angeles
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California's legal landscape will change dramatically on January 1, 2018, as Proposition 64, which permits the legal recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 and over, goes into effect. This session will provide a review of the biological action of cannabis, an overview of Proposition 64, and a discussion of its possible impact on court interactions with individuals and families in Dependency and Family Court settings, with an emphasis on practical application of the law and experiences from other states that have legalized marijuana.
Hon. Amy Pellman, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles
Kathleen West, DrPH, Lecturer/Consultant, Department of Social Welfare, University of California, Los Angeles
In 2016, the federal government for the first time enacted comprehensive ICWA regulations and also issued updated guidelines for state courts. The new regulations and guidelines include some significant changes that will require adjustments in California practice. In this session a nationally recognized expert on the meaning and interpretation of ICWA will discuss with a leading California juvenile court judge the implications of the new regulations and guidelines for California practice as well as some of the ongoing challenges that California has experienced in complying with ICWA. Come get an overview of the key changes in the new ICWA regulations, and learn strategies to avoid appeals and improve compliance in California.
Hon. Michael Clark, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara
Hon. William A. Thorne, Jr. (Ret.), Judge, Pomo/Coast Miwok Indian, Northern California
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This session will bring together representatives from the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), community-based organization Community Works West, and impacted youth to share the story of an unprecedented, county-wide collaboration among multiple stakeholders to lessen the impact of incarceration on children and families. From their work linking services in jails, schools, community-based organizations, youth, and their families, facilitators will share insight on the needs of children of incarcerated parents and how to take a collaborative, multipronged, partnership-based approach to supporting youth, families, and communities.
Hon. Leonard Edwards (Ret.), Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara
DeAngela Cooks, Program Manager, Project WHAT!
Jakaela Foster, Program Facilitator, Project WHAT!
Emily Juneau, Staff Attorney, Root & Rebound
The plenary session was an opportunity to hear and learn about 16-year-old Kalief Browder, held three years on Rikers Island, due to his inability to pay bail, for a crime he did not commit. Using Kalief Browder's case as a jumping off point for discussion, this session is intended to be a deeper dive into the role played by race, institutionalized racism, charging decisions, and poverty in the mass incarceration of African Americans. Moreover, it will explore solutions and be an opportunity for participants to engage in dialogue with former prosecutor Adam Foss and Akeem Browder, who are, from very different perspectives, tackling those issues on the ground.
Akeem Browder, Founder & Executive Director, Kalief Browder Foundation
Adam Foss, Founder, Prosecutor Impact
The issue of how to handle juvenile justice youth who are declared incompetent to stand trial has long frustrated the delinquency system. In this workshop, participants will learn about the court process: who can raise a doubt, what is the burden of proof for establishing the lack of competency, what is the time frame for restoring the youth to competence, and what happens if the youth cannot be restored to competence. Faculty will discuss the role of the court, probation, and other agencies in determining and restoring competence, as well as what to do when competence cannot be restored.
Hon. Susan Gill, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Kern
Chief James Salio, Chief Probation Officer, San Luis Obispo County Probation Department
Tracy Schiro, Assistant Director, Department of Social Services, San Luis Obispo County
Concurrent Workshops 4
11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
This session summarizes new case law relevant to dependency and provides an overview of significant appellate and state Supreme Court cases.
Hon. Jerilyn Borack, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento
Hon. Anthony Trendacosta, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles
This workshop will focus on outcomes for youth in extended foster care in California. Key findings from the CalYOUTH and “CalYOUTH in the Loop” study will be discussed in detail. This workshop will summarize findings from CalYOUTH on outcomes in early adulthood for youth eligible for extended foster care in California and the benefits of remaining in care into adulthood. The implications of study findings for policy and practice will be discussed, and participants will be able to ask questions to help determine how the outcomes of these studies can be used to improve practice in their county. Additionally, we will discuss learnings from phase 2 of the CalYOUTH in the Loop feedback project, including lessons learned from testing methods to reach transition-age youth and the strategies that can successfully result in youth feedback loops and engagement.
Mark Courtney, PhD, Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago
Laurie Kappe, President, i.e. Communications
Kamari (Kookie) Wells, Youth Perspective
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Youth arrests and crime levels are at historic lows. Yet on any given day in California, about 6,000 youth are incarcerated in more than 125 state and county youth prisons, costing taxpayers more than $1 billion a year. Studies show arrests and incarceration have a negative impact on young people’s health and education, and since black and Latino youth are more likely to be incarcerated, even for similar offenses, incarceration has a devastating impact on communities of color. Furthermore, 75–93% of young people in the juvenile justice system have experienced trauma, and being locked up often exacerbates that trauma. In light of this growing body of research showing youth incarceration is ineffective, excessively expensive, and harmful, how are system leaders and communities coming together to reimagine youth justice?
How are communities holding young people accountable without incarceration? What support do youth and families need? This session will highlight successful models in place in California and across the country, and include a discussion of the potential outcomes of moving away from youth incarceration.
Antoinette Davis, Director, Community Programs, Impact Justice
George Galvis, Cochair and Executive Director, California Alliance for Youth and Community Justice
Deborah Hodges, Court Administrator, Lucas County Juvenile Court, Ohio
Scott MacDonald, Consultant, Deep End Initiative, JDAI, Justice System Change Initiative
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Our youth face numerous barriers to successfully transitioning into adulthood when they have been involved in the juvenile court system, especially if they have been removed from their homes and/or communities. Participants and facilitators will examine how public defenders and civil legal aid attorneys can combine their expertise and create meaningful partnerships and projects to help youth overcome obstacles to education, housing, and employment. Public defenders have already built effective attorney-client relationships with youth in the juvenile justice system and have a keen understanding of adolescent development. Civil legal aid attorneys already provide representation in many of the areas that youth need representation: educational advocacy, debt collection, housing, disability benefits, public benefits, and sealing or expunging records, among others. Combining forces, defenders and legal aid attorneys can be a powerful force to empower and enable our youth to soar.
Brian Blalock, Law & Policy Director, Tipping Point Community
Sabrina Forte, Staff Attorney and Project Coordinator
Serena Holthe, Special Counsel, National Juvenile Defender Center
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Who engages with communities as part of their work? We all do. Whether you are a judge, probation officer, social worker, or other court-related professional, engaging with the community you serve is part of your work experience.
But there are often complicated power dynamics between court users and court professionals. Court professionals may come from a different racial, cultural, or socioeconomic background from the communities they serve. Community members and court users may sometimes feel intimidated by or distrustful of our court system. These, and other factors, can make it challenging to effectively engage with the communities and court users we serve.
Using a human-centered design approach, session participants will: explore the dynamics of court/community relationships; consider how those relationships might be designed in a more equitable way; and prototype creative strategies for improving those relationships.
This will be a thought-provoking, creative, and highly interactive session. Conference attendees from all professional backgrounds and experience levels are welcome to attend.
Julia Kong, Design Researcher, Reflex Design Collective
Julia Kramer, Graduate Student and Design Researcher, Reflex Design Collective
The victim’s rights movement, which has achieved national recognition, advocates to ensure victims are protected and their voices heard. While legislation by victim’s rights organizations/advocates and law enforcement agencies has established certain protections and supports for victims of crime, it has also, intentionally or unintentionally, led to longer criminal sentences and heightened racial disparities. Today, the definition of “victim” has expanded to include vicarious/collateral victims, family members, and children of the person who committed the crime. This workshop will explore the evolving definition of victim, including the psychological and mental health impact of being a victim. In addition, the workshop will address the following questions: how well does our current system support victims? How does Marsy’s Law protect or enhance victim’s rights? If we acknowledge that people convicted of crime are often victims, what needs to change? What should victim support look like? What creates safety in communities? And what brings about restoration?
Gena Castro Rodriguez, PsyD, Chief of Victim Services, San Francisco District Attorney’s Office
Tashante McCoy-Ham, Victim Advocate, Californians for Safety and Justice
Dionne Wilson, National Survivor Advocate, Alliance for Safety and Justice
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The majority of children and families who come into court have traumatic experiences in their backgrounds and often experience ongoing trauma just by being in “the system.” Using an approach that takes traumatic experiences into account in how court users are addressed; family, dependency, and juvenile courtrooms are managed; and how court teams ( e.g., psychologists, social workers, probation and parole officers) can effectively handle vicarious trauma, is exceedingly important in court settings that have the capacity to affect the intergenerational family.
This session will address why children and youth, and their parents are especially in need of trauma-informed care and what that would look like in practice in your courtrooms.
Hon. Katherine Lucero, Supervising Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara
Kathleen West, DrPH, Lecturer/Consultant, Department of Social Welfare, University of California, Los Angeles
This presentation aims to demonstrate how stakeholders in Santa Clara County are addressing disproportionate minority contact among African American youth on Deferred Entry of Judgment (DEJ) through a program called “Court Appointed Friend and Advocate” (CAFA). CAFA is an intervention that provides a court-appointed mentor to give support to the youth outside of the courtroom while also serving as a formal advocate for the youth inside the courtroom. The program will describe the framework for this collaborative, interagency advocacy approach to supporting youth of color on probation. It will provide an overview of the process of creating CAFA, describe implementation of the program, and discuss the data collection that will continue to inform the innovation of the program.
Cassidy Higgins, PhD, Director of Innovation and Growth, Fresh Lifelines for Youth
Ali Knight, Chief Operating Officer, Fresh Lifelines for Youth
Kathy Martinez, Deputy Chief Probation Officer, Santa Clara County Probation Department
The law on sealing of juvenile offense records has evolved rapidly in California over the last few years. This session will update participants on recent sealing law changes, including auto-sealing, sealing by petition, and postsealing uses of offense records. Presenters will address contemporary issues and challenges faced by judges, counsel, law enforcement, and other practitioners as they adapt to new record sealing laws and court rules. Participants will be invited to comment on practice issues they face and on the broader policy challenge of how the juvenile record sealing law in California might further evolve to support youth reentry success in a context of public safety.
Hon. Carolynn Caietti, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego
LaRon Dennis, Supervising Deputy District Attorney, Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office
Rourke Stacy, Trainer Juvenile Division, Office of the Los Angeles County Public Defender
David Steinhart, Director, Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program
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Nearly 1 in 5 children in foster care are classified as having a disability, and 30–50% of incarcerated youth have disabilities. The unique challenges that court-involved youth face such as mobility and trauma only serve to exacerbate the other challenges of serving youth with disabilities. This presentation will share the basic legal framework of early intervention and special education law. It will then share specific insights for addressing the special education needs of court-involved youth including key things to look out for to identify needs (including poor behavior that may mask underlying needs), processes for accessing assessments and services, designating and working with education rights holders, and requesting and monitoring the provision of appropriate services. It will also go into the early intervention needs of the youngest children—ages 0–3 and 3–5—and discuss the specific processes available to address those needs.
Alaina Moonves-Leb, Education Attorney, Alliance for Children’s Rights
Lisa Winebarger, Attorney, Alliance for Children’s Rights
Annually, there are an estimated 2 million people with serious mental illnesses admitted to jails across the nation. Almost three-quarters of these adults also have drug and alcohol use problems. Once incarcerated, individuals with mental illnesses tend to stay longer in jail and upon release are at a higher risk of homelessness and returning to jail or prison.
Almost 10 years after the recession, California continues to face a housing crisis, particularly for the poor and middle class; a crisis compounded for those with co-occurring disorders and a criminal record. While cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles are attempting to address housing affordability and homelessness, Santa Clara County, through a bond measure, will raise almost $1,000,000,000 to address the complex housing needs of the homeless, low- and moderate-income individuals, formerly incarcerated, and people suffering from a mental health disorder or addiction.
This session will focus on what counties are doing to assist the homeless, and low- and moderate-income individuals with housing, and divert individuals from jail/prison into stable housing.
Corrin Buchanan, Deputy Director, Office of Diversion and Reentry, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
Garry Herceg, Deputy County Executive, Office of the County Executive, County of Santa Clara
Hon. Stephen Manley, Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara
This workshop will provide background information that will include definitions of trafficking, a brief overview of historical trauma, factors that impact trafficking within tribal communities that can differ from other communities, model examples of trafficking prevention or programs created in tribal communities, legal information, resources available to Native American survivors of trafficking, and best practices when conducting outreach or partnering with tribal communities.
Lisa Ann Albitre, Tribal Representative/Government Analyst
Suzanne Garcia, Tribal Child Welfare Specialist, Capacity Building Center for Tribes
Lynda Smallenberger, Executive Director, Kene Me Wu–Native American DV/SA Program
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As the line between the physical and digital worlds blur, it’s increasingly important for service providers and courts to understand how technology can be used both to support safety and healing and, in other cases, to perpetrate harm. In this session, participants will learn (1) how technology can be used to perpetrate domestic violence, stalk, and harass; (2) tools and strategies to be “techsafe”; and (3) how to analyze apps and websites that are more or less likely to be helpful to litigants and clients dealing with trauma and stress.
Ian Harris, Technology Safety Legal Manager, National Network to End Domestic Violence
Julia F. Weber, JD, MSW, Attorney/Consultant
PLENARY - THE INTERSECTION OF CHILD SAFETY AND THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM
12:30 P.M.-2:15 P.M.
Recognizing Diane Nunn, founder of the Judicial Council’s Center for Families, Children & the Courts, for a career dedicated to improving outcomes for children and families in California’s courts, and for her leadership in building Beyond the Bench into the premier conference convening courts and justice partners to focus on hope, humanity, and healthy families.
Charlene Depner, Director, Judicial Council’s Center for Families, Children & the Courts
Leora Gershenzon, Chief Deputy Counsel, Assembly Judiciary Committee
Listen in on a conversation about the most important topic in child welfare: eliminating child abuse and neglect fatalities. Long-time friends and colleagues, Judge Michael Nash and Dr. David Sanders, will be discussing the best way forward to eliminating fatalities: in Los Angeles County, in California, and nationwide. When Dr. Sanders was director of the Los Angeles County Department of Child and Family Services, Judge Nash was presiding juvenile court judge of the Los Angeles Dependency Court. Their discussion will be informed by their years of working together and their recent partnerships on the Los Angeles Blue Ribbon Commission and the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities.
Hon. Michael Nash (Ret.), Executive Director, Los Angeles County Office of Child Protection
David Sanders, PhD, Executive Vice-President of Systems Improvement, Casey Family Programs
Concurrent Workshops 5
2:30 p.m.-4:00 p.m.
Through an interactive discussion, participants will learn how to achieve the vision of reducing reliance on congregate care by focusing on improving efforts to engage, recruit, and support families, particularly kinship caregivers. Participants will learn about those aspects of CCR that impact family placements including an overview of Resource Family Approval, the new foster care rate structure, and county uses of Foster Parent Recruitment and Retention dollars to support kin placements. Participants will also receive the Resource Family Approval Guide, designed especially to assist families in navigating approval, as well as model practices, policies, and court orders that will assist in engagement and support of family placements.
Susan Abrams, Policy Director, Children’s Law Center of California
Hon. Michael Nash (Ret.), Executive Director, Los Angeles County Office of Child Protection
Elise Weinberg, Policy Attorney, Alliance for Children’s Rights
Kim Wrigley, Program Implementation Bureau Chief, California Department of Social Services
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This session will provide a review of the scope of the problems that vary throughout states and how cultural humility principles can be integrated to work with participants’ cultural perspectives to support and sustain their recovery process. It will also provide practitioners with culturally informed processes that can augment their skill sets and consequently outcomes for Hispanic and Latino drug court participants.
Hon. Rogelio Flores, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara
Court hearings in juvenile dependency cases move quickly. In many cases, issues like notice, parentage, and right to counsel are considered and ruled upon quickly, with courts and counsel relying upon a sentence or two from a case-carrying social worker. This workshop will look at the obligations that agency, child, and parent attorneys have toward statutorily and constitutionally mandated issues, and how courts will receive input and rule on these issues in difficult situations.
Traci F. Lee, Assistant County Counsel, Office of the County Counsel, Sacramento
David Meyers, Attorney/Chief Operating Officer, Dependency Legal Services
California is undergoing dramatic changes in the treatment of addition. In addition, compliance with treatment program requirements for Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) is a critical component of many parent and juvenile case plans in dependency, juvenile, and family court cases. This session will begin with a discussion of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), which has been shown to improve client retention in treatment for an array of reasons. MAT is especially relevant in the context of the opioid epidemic affecting our communities. This session will explain when, how, and why MAT works, some of the risks and benefits of using MAT, and how to monitor and manage MAT cases in reunification, visitation, and custody cases. This session will conclude with an overview of the emerging addiction treatment continuum, beginning with the parity of mental health and substance abuse treatment under the Affordable Care Act in 2010, California’s participation in the Waiver Demonstration Project and the role that Medi-Cal will play in the delivery of treatment services. The presenter will outline the impact on the criminal justice system referral processes and access, the benefits and the challenges.
Liz Stanley-Salazar
Kathleen West, DrPH, Lecturer/Consultant, Department of Social Welfare, University of California, Los Angeles
Impact Justice and the National Center for Lesbian Rights developed a practice guide summarizing research showing that lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, gender nonconforming, and transgender (LGBQ/GNCT) youth are significantly overrepresented in the state’s juvenile justice system, and are at higher risk than their peers for a host of negative outcomes. Based on these findings and emerging legal and professional standards, the guide recommends policies and procedures to prohibit discrimination, prevent harm, and promote equitable treatment of LGBQ/GNCT youth. The authors of the guide will summarize the state data, and the applicable legal and professional standards.
Angela Irvine, PhD, Principal, Ceres Policy Research
Shannan Wilber, Youth Policy Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights
High-profile attention to the opioid crisis is controversial among communities impacted by other drugs. From 8,400 opioid overdose deaths in 2000, the fatalities now surpass 33,000. White Americans made up 82 percent of those deaths in 2014; blacks and Latinos comprised just 8 and 7 percent, respectively.
People living in predominately African American communities believe recent attention to opiate addiction, a problem/crisis largely confined to whites, may shift focus away from communities of color where other drugs are more prevalent. Consequently, and in stark contrast to how the crack epidemic was handled, there are efforts underway to treat increased heroin use as a public-safety problem as opposed to a criminal justice matter left to police, prosecutors, and judges.
This session will explore opioid addiction, and racial differences and disparities in how opiate use is discussed and treated today by policymakers, law enforcement, treatment providers, and judges, in comparison to how crack addiction was treated.
John Pugliese, PhD, Research Scientist, California Department of Public Health
Terrence Walton, Chief Operating Officer, National Association of Drug Court Professional
This workshop will provide a general overview of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), a form of federal immigration relief that depends on state judicial determinations about child welfare and custody. The discussion will address the various doors through which immigrant children may enter state court, the judicial findings needed to enable them to apply for SIJS, and the variety of factual scenarios in which these children may qualify for the legal protection that serves as the basis for the SIJS findings under evolving federal and state law. This workshop will also include important recent developments including limits on the number of available SIJS visas, recent changes in the processing and adjudication of SIJS petitions by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and highlights from the recently released USCIS policy manual.
Kristen Jackson, Senior Staff Attorney, Public Counsel
Rachel Prandini, Immigrant Youth Project Attorney, Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Hayley Upshaw, Deputy Public Defender, San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
With Proposition 57, the voters of the State of California did away with the prosecutor's ability to directly file serious juvenile delinquency cases in adult court. This workshop will consider the implications of Prop. 57 and Senate Bill 382, which suggest a societal shift in how we treat juveniles who commit serious crimes. Participants will explore the implications of this evolution and discuss how it fits into Supreme Court jurisprudence on sentencing juveniles who commit serious crimes. On the practical side, participants will learn about how Prop. 57 and SB 382 changed the transfer factors, burden of proof, and presumption of unfitness. Faculty will discuss how to approach and prepare for a transfer hearing, and provide the court’s perspective on crafting a compelling hearing.
Sue Burrell, Policy and Training Director, Pacific Juvenile Defender Center
Hon. Sean Lafferty, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Riverside
Flavio Nominati, Deputy District Attorney, San Diego County District Attorney’s Office
Shawnalyse Ochoa, Assistant Division Chief, Juvenile, San Diego County District Attorney’s Office
There is no “typical” victim of DV. A victim can come from any group regardless of education, income, culture, ethnicity, religion, ability, or lifestyle. There is also no single reason for staying or leaving an abusive relationship. The core of the abusive relationship is an intimate partner’s (or former partner’s) cycle of establishing or maintaining power and control over another. The abuser uses the victim’s vulnerabilities, fears, and weaknesses to maintain power and control. This session will help participants understand the many psychological and emotional factors that prevent a victim from protecting themselves and others, including: perceived bias/bias in the legal system and social bias/attitudes of victims of domestic violence. The session will also identify strategies for attorneys, judges, probation officers, and other professionals who work with victims to help support victims to achieve safety.
Gena Castro Rodriguez, Chief of Victim Services, San Francisco District Attorney’s Office
The presentation will first provide a framework to understand the education rights of youth in the juvenile system. The presentation will provide an overview of the prevailing law and processes: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); Fourteen Amendment safeguards of equal protection and due process as enforced through 42 U.S.C. § 1983; and the applicable California Education and Welfare and Institutions Code provisions. Using hypothetical scenarios, the presentation will build on this framework to explore the interplay of the education and juvenile systems in real-world examples. The scenarios provide a roadmap to discover opportunities at each stage of the juvenile proceedings: from inquiry to case plan development. The exercise also exposes common difficulties and will elicit collective problem solving to overcome the barriers. The exercise will teach the attendees the respective obligations of the parties and agencies, and illustrate the authority within the juvenile court system to make and enforce the educational rights of these children.
Elizabeth Pacheco, Attorney
Daniel Shaw, Attorney, Shaw Firm