Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Making Detention Reform Work For Girls: A Guide To Juvenile Detention Reform, Francine Sherman, Richard Mendel, Angela Irvine

Francine T. Sherman

Throughout the nation, court-involved girls frequently pose minimal risk to public safety but suffer with significant social service needs. Data on detention utilization show that girls are being disproportionately detained for misdemeanors, status offenses and technical violations of probation and parole. In short, many girls enter detention for the wrong reasons and many remain in detention for extended periods harmful to them and contrary to best practice.

This practice guide responds to a call from both mature and new sites from within the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) network, which continue to find that effectively serving and supervising girls is …

Justice For Girls: Are We Making Progress?, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

Over the course of more than a century, structural gender bias has been a remarkably durable feature of United States juvenile justice systems. Consequently, as these systems have developed over the years, reducing gender bias and addressing girls in helpful, rather than harmful, ways has required specific and concerted efforts on the part of federal and state governments. Currently, there are a number of positive trends in juvenile justice, including policy and practice that is increasingly developmentally centered and data-driven. The question for those focused on girls in the juvenile justice system is how to ensure that girls are the …

Foreword, Francine T. Sherman, William Talley Jr

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

The System Response To The Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Girls, Francine Sherman, Lisa Grace

Francine T. Sherman

This chapter, which is written from the perspectives of law, public health, and social work, examines the system’s response to the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), focusing on girls. It describes the issue and then examine the range of international, federal, state, and local laws and policies, aimed at aiding and enhancing prosecution of perpetrators of CSEC (i.e., pimps, johns), and at providing protection and services to its victims. The chapter argues that, as state and local authorities implement practice and policy for this population, the two central goals—law enforcement and victim protection—may conflict, creating practices that serve neither …

Children's Rights And Relationships: A Legal Framework, Francine Sherman, Hon. Jay Blitzman

Francine T. Sherman

This chapter provides an overview of United States children’s law, framed both in terms of autonomy-based and needs-based rights, and by the legal dynamic among child, parent, and state. The chapter highlights the law of juvenile justice and child welfare systems, and also examines law relevant to education and health care, two central institutions for children. The chapter proceeds ecologically, acknowledging that children’s lives, including their legal lives, are related to their families, communities, and the social institutions surrounding them. As such the chapter provides a readable introduction to children’s relationship with the law for both lawyers and non-lawyers.

The Role Of Gender In Youth Systems: Grace's Story, Francine Sherman, Jessica Greenstone

Francine T. Sherman

This chapter —written from a legal and developmental perspective —describes the experiences of ‘‘Grace,’’ a teenage girl involved with multiple public systems, including juvenile justice. Through detailed analysis of primary interview data with Grace and others responsible for her care and supervision, and of court case material. The chapter sheds light on how Grace’s actions were interpreted and the responses they evoked. The case study includes recommendations for implementing gender-responsive principles across these systems.

Juvenile Justice: Advancing Research, Policy, And Practice, Francine Sherman, Francine Jacobs

Francine T. Sherman

This accessible, edited volume reflects the multiplisciplinary, multisectoral nature of juvenile justice, including chapters by leaders in the fields of child development, law, public health, education, advocacy, and public administration. The voices of scholars, parents, administrators, and youth are woven into its fabric; it offers several complementary theoretical lenses through which to understand the behavior of youth involved with the juvenile justice system, and provides a range of promising and proven practical approaches to juvenile justice policy, programming, and evaluation.

The book is organized ecologically into four sections: Framing the Issues, Understanding Individual Youth, Understanding Youth in Context, and Working …

Gender Matters In Juvenile Justice, Francine Sherman, Meda Chesney-Lind

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Reframing The Response: Girls In The Juvenile Justice System And Domestic Violence, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

This article provides an overview of the role gender plays in juvenile justice processing. It reviews national data on girls’ arrest patterns and links those patterns to girls’ underlying needs and trauma histories. The article then focuses on the increase in arrests of girls for domestic assaults and describes the experience of Washoe County, Nevada, where girls were detained disproportionately for domestic battery as a result of a mandatory detention law. The article goes on to describe Nevada’s successful effort to amend that law to increase discretion and mandate family services and the resulting improvements in services to girls experiencing …

Access To Community Healthcare For Youth In The Juvenile Justice System: Initial Lessons From The Massachusetts Health Passport Project, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

From 2004-2010, the author directed the Massachusetts Health Passport Project (MHPP), aimed at facilitating continuous access to healthcare for girls and boys in the juvenile justice system in two Massachusetts counties. This article describes the health challenges facing youth, and particularly girls in the juvenile justice system including the significant barriers to health care access that these youth face. It goes on to describe the Massachusetts Health Passport Project, designed to: 1. Improve access to healthcare; 2) Change relevant systems; 3) Improve youth’s social supports; and 4) Improve youth’s health status. The article draws on an evaluation of MHPP to …

Promoting Justice For Girls In An Unjust System, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Taking On The Challenge: Phase I Of The Hyams Foundation Girls' Initiative, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

This report describes Phase I of The Hyams Foundation’s funding initiative for eight programs providing direct services to girls in Boston and Chelsea, Massachusetts. Although the programs varied in their sophistication and experience with gender-responsive approaches, in each case the programs served girls who were court involved and worked with the state social services or juvenile justice systems. The monograph describes the work of the initiative’s Learning Community, participation in which was a requirement of funding, and findings from the Learning Community’s participatory action research. Notably, the report describes nine lessons learned from the funding initiative, which are useful for …

Detention Reform And Girls: Challenges And Solutions: Jdai Pathways To Juvenile Detention Reform #13, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

This report is part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) Pathways to Detention Reform Series. It describes the urgent need for juvenile justice systems to focus on their female populations and presents an overview of the pathways girls take into detention in the United States with a focus on justice system policies and practices that lead to unnecessary and disproportionate detention of girls. It then identifies promising policies, practices, and gender-responsive approaches drawn from JDAI sites, which can reduce girls’ detention and improve their outcomes. The report concludes with systemic strategies to eliminate gender bias …

Girls In The Juvenile Justice System: Perspectives On Services And Conditions Of Confinement, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

This report details the results of original survey and interview research on perceptions of Judges, Attorneys and girls in the juvenile justice system on conditions of confinement for girls in detention and post-disposition confinement.

When Individual Differences Demand Equal Treatment: An Equal Rights Approach To The Special Needs Of Girls In The Juvenile Justice System, Francine Sherman, Marsha L. Levick

Francine T. Sherman

This article argues that disparities girls face in the juvenile justice system can be remedied by employing equal rights analysis including the federal Equal Protection Clause, state Equal Rights Amendments, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Unlike the adult prison context, in which equal protection and Title IX have had limited success, the juvenile justice system is premised on individualized rehabilitative justice. Where differences between male and female offenders have undermined equal rights challenges in the adult arena, in the juvenile justice system differences among individual youth are acknowledged, and dispositions are driven by those individual needs. …

Effective Advocacy Strategies For Girls: Promoting Justice In An Unjust System, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Contributor, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Prostitution And Teenage Girls, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Probation And The Delinquent Girl, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

What's In A Name: Runaway Girls Pose Challenges For Justice Professionals, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Leadership And Lawyering: Learning New Ways To See Juvenile Justice, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

The Juvenile Rights Advocacy Project: Representing Girls In Context, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Law In The School-Linked Services Model: Problems And Possibilities, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Context In The Representation Of Children, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.