The Washington Post: Juvenile justice advocates and police at odds over reform bill
The Washington Post’s Donovan J. Thomas covered our recent testimony on the Youth Rights Amendment Act of 2021, a bill that would change police interactions with DC youth, including banning consent searches of minors and requiring an attorney be present for interrogations of youth:
Danielle Robinette, policy attorney for The Children’s Law Center, said in written testimony to the D.C. Council that changing the way police approach possible youthful offenders would “lessen the likelihood that an interaction between a young person and the police escalates into a dangerous situation.”
Robinette wrote that the proposed changes are particularly important when police come into contact with young people who have disabilities or who have suffered trauma and their response to police may be “misread as noncompliance or involuntary consent by law enforcement.”
Juvenile justice advocates have long expressed that policing practices disproportionately affect Black and Latino populations and people with disabilities.