Published research tells us that the brains of young people are not fully developed. Meaning, partially, youths are at risk of making life-changing decisions without fully grasping what can result. Many criminal and juvenile justice advocates claim that the current method of handling teenagers who break the law is woefully inappropriate. Moreover, many voters in…
Continue reading ›Driving under the influence is a severe offense in the State of California, even when nobody is injured. Those who are convicted of a DUI often pay enormous fines and are required to serve some jail time and lose their license for varying lengths of time. Each case is different, and punishments may look different…
Continue reading ›While the U.S. Supreme Court deems access to social media platforms protected by the First Amendment, that doesn’t mean that some people can’t be restricted. A California state appeals court ruled that a “narrowly tailored” limit on social media use for a juvenile on probation was legal, NextGov reports. When reviewing the case in question,…
Continue reading ›At the Law Offices of Katie Walsh, we would like to draw your attention to the California School Dashboard. The California School Dashboard is the place where parents, families, students, and teachers can see how well our schools and students are doing and where improvement is warranted. Please take a moment to watch a short…
Continue reading ›The National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) a non-profit law firm based in Oakland, California, helps low-income children and aims to transform the multiple public systems serving vulnerable children. The organization leads campaigns to reform education, child welfare, public health, behavioral health, juvenile justice, and workforce development. In the realm of juvenile justice, the NCYL’s…
Continue reading ›In 1974, Congress passed the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). Lawmakers wrote the bill to address some of the glaring inconsistencies in approaches to juvenile justice from one state to the next. Most Americans are unaware that there are more than 56 different juvenile justice systems in the U.S. Each of which is…
Continue reading ›Last week, the State of California released school suspension data and takeaways are, at best, concerning. At The Law Offices of Katie Walsh school suspension and expulsion is a topic of vital importance; much of the work we do is representing juveniles who have had problems in the classroom. We follow the data carefully to…
Continue reading ›We covered an essential story about new juvenile justice legislation signed into law last month. In the 11th hour of Governor Jerry Brown’s fourth term he signed Senate Bill 439 and Senate Bill 1391 into law, both measures will go into effect across the state next year. SB 439 establishes 12 years as the minimum…
Continue reading ›If you have been keeping up on the news related to the American opioid addiction epidemic plaguing the United States, then you are likely aware of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. The new legislation – recently signed into law by the current administration – aims to address several aspects of the public health…
Continue reading ›Last month, we covered Senate Bill 607, as it relates to juvenile justice in California. The bill – authored by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley – would have expanded a bill signed into law in 2014 banning the suspension of students in grades K-3 for acts of “disruption and defiance.” Sen. Skinner’s proposal had the expressed…
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