Common Wisdom: Making the Case for a New Georgia Juvenile Code Released
Common Wisdom: Making the Case for a New Georgia Juvenile Code gives expression to the experience of hundreds of stakeholders in juvenile justice in Georgia. Each stakeholder shared wisdom from their own vantage point on the current juvenile code: what works, what does not, and how they would change it. The publication of Common Wisdom, as a comprehensive Statewide Summary Report, ten Judicial District Reports, and an Executive Summary, provides feedback from individuals invested firsthand in improving juvenile justice for children, families and communities throughout Georgia.
- The findings in Common Wisdom will help inform a revised JUSTGeorgia juvenile code legislative package that will be presented to the 2009 General Assembly;
- The experiences conveyed in the Report will empower JUSTGeorgia coalition members statewide as they advocate for real change armed with compelling stories;
- Perhaps most importantly, the voices of Georgians with the largest stakes in the system have the opportunity to be heard and understood in their different contexts by public policy makers charged with the responsibility to provide justice for Georgia's children and families.
Senate Bill 292 Child Protection and Public Safety Act Introduced
On April 2, 2009, Georgia State Senator Bill Hamrick (R-Carrollton), Vice Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced a 228-page bill (SB292) designed to revise and modernize the state's Juvenile Code. The Senator explained "This is an important, complex piece of legislation designed to improve the manner in which our courts interact with children…For more than a year now, the JUSTGeorgia coalition has done the hard work of carefully analyzing Georgia's existing Juvenile Code and developing thoughtful improvements. They have pulled together a wealth of valuable input from juvenile court judges, social workers, lawyers who work in the juvenile justice system, and, not least, affected children and their families. I look forward to continuing to work with them as we move this legislation through the General Assembly."
Backgrounder: JUSTGeorgia
The Juvenile Code in Georgia impacts virtually every facet of a child's life from birth until age 18. The current code, adopted in 1971 and revised many times since, was considered so out of date that the Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution in 2005 calling for its complete overhaul.
In early 2006, The Sapelo Foundation approached Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Voices for Georgia's Children and the Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic of Emory Law School. The Foundation sought to support meaningful improvements in Georgia's juvenile justice public policy and wanted the three groups to identify and activate the steps needed to achieve such a goal within three to five short years.
Their collaborative response was the creation of JUSTGeorgia, a statewide coalition to:
- Advocate for the passage of a new Juvenile Code that reflects the scientific findings and best practices in the child development field; and
- Work to identify and change policies in underlying social service systems to better serve Georgia's children, prevent detention and promote safer communities.
New Model Code Completed
In March, 2008, the Georgia State Bar Association Young Lawyer's Division completed a four-year project to develop a model juvenile code based on a national review of best practices and scientific findings in the child development field. This new document represented the important first step in the process to introduce a comprehensive juvenile code legislative package in the Georgia General Assembly in 2009.
Georgia Appleseed's Role in JUSTGeorgia
Georgia Appleseed recognized that a new juvenile code for Georgia would need more than excellent research and draftsmanship if it were to be accepted by a majority of the stakeholders and policy makers. Drawing upon its core competencies of research, dissemination of findings and effecting change, Georgia Appleseed embraced the massive undertaking of gathering input from Georgians all over the state on their own opinions and ideas for improvement to the current code.
Research
Georgia Appleseed recruited thirteen law firms to field teams of lawyers and other professionals to take on the huge task of gathering stakeholder input from each of the ten Judicial Districts within the State of Georgia.
For over a year, hundreds of lawyers and other professionals logged over 6,500 pro bono hours in identifying, interviewing, and transcribing interviews from a wide array of stakeholders, such as parents, young adults and older youth, law enforcement, child welfare workers, mental health providers, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, educators, business leaders, probation officers and many more. More than 300 individuals throughout the state were interviewed to reap that common and practical wisdom about "how we do things in Georgia."
In addition to these face-to-face interviews, Georgia Appleseed held a public Town Hall meeting, facilitated by the UGA Fanning Institute, in each of the ten judicial districts, to encourage input from the general community regarding the current juvenile code.
Dissemination
The combined input of the interviews, town hall meetings, and other comment opportunities resulted in meaningful, on-the-ground feedback that will
- help inform an insightful new code governing how deprivation and delinquency are handled, and
- assist children in need of services to get back on the path to growing up to be productive citizens.
This feedback has been gathered into a comprehensive Statewide Summary Report, ten Judicial District Reports, and an Executive Summary. To access the full array of reports, click here.
JUSTGeorgia Advocacy Institute Attracts 150 Participants
On Monday, November 17, 150 advocates from across Georgia gathered at Clayton State University for a day of education and training for JUSTGeorgia coalition members.
The morning program included expert presentations, including the latest research in child brain development and its implications for policy, and a panel on the age of a child under the law.
Afternoon workshops helped coalition members get informed and get involved.
Featured were "Juvenile Courts 101," "Successful Models of Reform," "Strategies for Effective Lobbying," "The Case for Change: Speaking about Juvenile Justice to the Public, the Media and Your Friends" and "The Challenge of Collaboration: What Can We Accomplish Together?"
Leslie Gresham, Esq., Georgia Appleseed JUSTGeorgia Project Manager, leads a town hall meeting-style workshop entitled "What Would Real Change Look Like?"
Get Involved
Join JUSTGeorgia, an ongoing statewide coalition dedicated to advocacy on behalf of more equitable justice and social service systems to serve Georgia's children.
