![]() ![]() ![]() Youth are also involved in other aspects of JJPL’s work. While JJPL joined the Southern Poverty Law Center in a lawsuit on behalf of that child, YASS launched an organizing campaign to make schools more supportive and safe in New Orleans. They also just launched a campaign to reform the school security policies at the Recovery School District, an issue that was brought to the forefront after a six-year-old was handcuffed and shackled by a security officer at his elementary school. Since then, they have hosted two Youth Summits, with participation of youth from Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. Initially, YASS worked with JJPL and other organizations in the city on the campaign to close the Youth Study Center, hosting DJ parties as outreach events and testifying before the City Council about their experiences in the facility. Youth have always been involved in some aspect of our work, but with the development of YASS, it has become its own full-fledged program. How does JJPL engage young people to help transform Louisiana's brutal and punitive juvenile justice system? From there, YASS was born, and they have added a whole new dimension to JJPL’s work. Many of them continued to work with us after their release and wanted to take on other social issues they were grappling with post-Katrina New Orleans. ![]() The group started when we filed a federal class action lawsuit on conditions of confinement at the Youth Study Center, New Orleans’ juvenile jail. A number of incarcerated youth who were plaintiffs got involved in the campaign for reform. One of our greatest accomplishments has also been the launching of Young Adults Striving for Success (YASS), an organizing project. Alongside Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children and other partner organizations, we helped to rewrite the Orleans Parish Recovery School District (RSD) Discipline Policy to reduce the number of suspendable and expellable offenses, and helped to reduce the number of security officers in high schools by one-third and in elementary schools by one half. We also launched Juvenile Regional Services, a model juvenile public defender office that has transformed juvenile indigent defense in the city. We’re extremely proud of some of our accomplishments since then, like helping to secure the release over 150 young people held in detention during the Hurricane, and releasing “ Treated Like Trash ,” an account of the botched evacuation of these youth and others from the city. However, the five years since Hurricane Katrina almost feel like a new era. She spoke with me about her work.Ĭan you tell me what Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana's greatest accomplishments have been over the past five years? Dana Kaplan is executive director of Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, a grantee of the Open Society Foundations. ![]()
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