Since the late 90’s, Dohan has worked to transform juvenile


defense in Massachusetts from a fragmented system with no uni- fied practices or standards to a model implemented across that state. His reforms are strongly rooted in the desire to help young people improve their own lives, while at the same time creating safer, more supportive communities. “Every bit of research on crime prevention tells us that a fair,


effective and developmentally appropriate juvenile justice system is far more cost effective than adult corrections,” says Dohan. “In or- der for juvenile justice systems to be any of those things, the young people must have early and sustained access to skilled advocates. Smart communities insist that public defender systems make the representation of children and youth a priority. Shelby County has the opportunity to start almost from scratch.”


STARTING FROM SCRATCH Creating a new defender unit takes time and money, and the


Public Defender’s Office has some of both, but not enough. Under the Memorandum of Agreement reached with the DOJ in De- cember of last year, the changes to the defense function are to be in place by the end of 2013. Tat’s just a month away. In August of this year, the state and county government al- located $2 million to fund the new defender unit. Tis money is expected to cover new technology, workspace and, of course, juvenile defenders. Under the MOA, 9000 children will require representation – and almost all will require publicly funded coun- sel.


Stephen Bush believes the funding his office has been allot-


ted by state and county governments will provide less than half of the publicly funded lawyering required under the MOA. Simply meeting the mandated national standards of “independent, ethical and zealous advocacy” will dramatically increase both the volume of cases and the depth of services from current levels. Under the agreement, juvenile defenders must be highly spe-


cialized attorneys, skilled in dealing with families, knowledgeable in brain development and childhood trauma. Specialized juvenile


defense is still a new discipline among lawyers, so even the most skilled criminal defense attorneys will undergo extensive juvenile defense training. Te public defender must also provide access to a compliment of counselors, social workers and family advocates. Because of the limited resources allocated for the first year of


service, Bush expects public defenders to quickly reach maximum workload limits allowed under the MOA. Tis means there will still be thousands of children who require representation by the dedicated but grossly under-compensated private attorneys who accept court appointments. Bush is committed to provide training and supplemental supports for these lawyers, but is concerned that the structural problems in state rules that govern private assigned counsel (in Supreme Court Rule13) perpetuate the very challenges that triggered the DOJ investigation in the first place.


ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY In his experience reforming the Massachusetts juvenile sys-


tem, Dohan has found that children have a better chance at suc- cess when they have strong advocates that follow them from the courtroom to the community. “Juvenile defenders must embrace the idea that legal success and life success are inextricably intertwined,” says Dohan. “Tis means that juvenile defenders--ideally, supported by expert social workers--must expand their advocacy outside of the courtroom. Tey need to be working closely with their clients and their fami- lies to connect young people with after school programming, men- tal health, family and substance abuse counseling, job readiness and job placement opportunities, as well as opportunities for com- munity and spiritual engagement.” While some in Memphis are greatly concerned with the wel-


fare of children entering the juvenile justice system, there is, un- derstandably, more broad-based concern for the overall safety of the community. Tat fear is tapped when local newspaper and television reporters aggressively cover juvenile court hearings as they would adult criminal court trials. In these unusual, therefore, prominent cases, the violence can be shocking.


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