Top New York judge urges greater legal rights for the poor, By William Glaberson, May 3, 2010, New York Times: “New York’s chief judge called on Monday for a new guarantee of a lawyer for poor people in civil cases, like suits over eviction and other disputes where basic needs are at stake, pushing the state to the forefront of a national effort to expand the right to representation for the indigent. In a speech in Albany, the chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, said his proposal, the first such plan by a top court official in New York, reflected a commitment by the state’s courts ‘to bring us closer to the ideal of equal access to civil justice’ that he described as one of the foundations of the legal system…”
Day: May 5, 2010
Aging Out of Foster Care – Utah
Youth struggle to succeed after foster care, studies show, By Brooke Adams, May 5, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “Until she entered foster care, Bianca Flores was too busy tending her three younger siblings to attend school. Her mother was either sick or MIA, gone for nearly a week at a time. There was no dad — never had been. So Flores filled in as best she could, putting her own life on hold. But since January 2009, Flores has powered through three years of high school credits, and this spring she will do what seemed unimaginable a year ago: Flores, 18, will graduate from high school, the second person in her family to do so. Next up is an even bigger challenge — at the end of August, Flores will exit the state’s foster care system and become a student at Snow College, where she plans to pursue a degree in graphic design. If Flores succeeds, she will be defying the odds. Numerous studies, both here and in other parts of the country, have highlighted the struggles of youth who age out of foster care, finding they are more likely to be homeless, unemployed, under-educated and in jail. One report released this month found nearly 60 percent of young men had been convicted of a crime, compared with 10 percent of young men who had never been in foster care. For women, three-quarters were on public assistance by age 24…”
Juvenile Justice System – New York
Why are more Monroe County kids in the juvenile justice system?, By Denise-Marie Santiago, May 2, 2010, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: “With his handcuffs off and a guard trailing him, Calvin didn’t look at the judge when he first walked into Monroe County Family Court. The lanky 17-year-old made a beeline to his mother that morning in March to kiss her, before standing with his attorney to hear how much more time he would serve in a juvenile facility for being caught a second time in a stolen car a year earlier. In Buffalo, he might still be at home and serving probation for the misdemeanor charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle. Syracuse officials may have diverted Calvin’s case to a program that keeps him with his family while providing services to get him back on track. In Monroe County, though, judges have long sent away more juvenile delinquents and persons in need of supervision, or PINS, to secure and nonsecure facilities than Buffalo’s Erie County and Syracuse’s Onondaga County combined. Monroe County is also more likely to keep them for a time in a local detention facility, rather than release them to their families, before their cases come to court. And among the 10 counties that place the most juvenile delinquents in state custody, according to a study of New York’s juvenile justice system, Monroe leads in disproportionately placing African-Americans…”