We are on a mission to build our community of defenders and raise the level of practice we bring each day on behalf of children thrust into the delinquency system. With each episode our goal is to bring in experts and other defender specialists to educate and inspire us to be better defenders and to learn more about the policy issues facing court-involved children.
Working with journalists! A conversation with Meribah Knight
Co-host Chris Kleiser chats with Meribah Knight about her important investigation into Rutherford County's Juvenile Court and juvenile detention practices.
Here is a link to the article:
https://wpln.org/post/black-children-were-jailed-for-a-crime-that-doesnt-exist-almost-nothing-happened-to-the-adults-in-charge/ (https://wpln.org/post/black-children-were-jailed-for-a-crime-that-doesnt-exist-almost-nothing-happened-to-the-adults-in-charge/)
This investigation has become a NYT/Serial podcast series called The Kids of Rutherford County, and we are so excited about how this has elevated a spotlight on illegal practices that go on in juvenile courts when no one is looking. The first two episodes of Meribah's podcast dropped October 26 and the third episode is out today! Be sure to check it out!
11 Sept 2023
Fines, Fees and More Fees, Oh My!
Co-host Chris Kleiser talks with Tim Curry of the Fines and Fees Justice Center who discusses the importance of following the money and ways to challenge the imposition of these costs on young people and their families.
Special thanks to Angela Vigil and the Gault Center for giving us permission to use her amazing song, Defender and to VOLUNTEER sound engineer Raiden Rogers for donating his time and energy to put it all together.
15 May 2023
The Importance of Expungement!
In this episode, co-host Chris Kleiser sits down with Knoxville criminal defense attorney Jamie Hughes and the Director of the University of Tennessee's Legal Clinic, Joy Radice to talk about Tennessee's juvenile record expungement statute and the importance of making sure you expunge your clients records when possible. A while back, Chris received a phone call from Jamie saying the NEVER ADJUDICATED, outright dismissed cases of one of her clients was being used to send a kid off to Federal Prison FOR LIFE and well, you'll just have to listen to find out what happened. This is the final episode we recorded before we lost our sound engineer at ETPTV and without funding, we were unable to continue to record there....hint hint. If you like our podcast, you could send an email to ETPTV to let them know. Donations work too.We continue to be forever grateful to Angela Vigil and the Gault Center for giving us permission to use her amazing song, Defender. And special thanks to VOLUNTEER sound engineer Raiden Rogers, who heard about our dilemma and is graciously volunteering his time and skills to help us get these episodes out.
20 Mar 2023
The Role of Nutrition in Children's Behaviors
Co-host Chris Kleiser sits down with Dr. Nicole Beurkens to discuss the role of nutrition and behavior. Now, this episode might seem like a stretch, but in our holistic representation, we have to understand just how important nutrition is as one of the underlying root causes of many of our client's behaviors.
Thank you to Angela Vigil for letting us use her amazing song Defender. We will play the entire song soon!
PS: We are moving a little more slowly with episodes because we do this entirely for free and lost our sound engineer at ETPTV, so, thank you for your patience!
Recommendations:
Books: Food Fix, Dr. Mark Hyman
Life Will Get Better: Dr. Nicole Beurkens
Sugar Proof: Drs. Michael Goran and Emily Ventura
Kid Food: Bettina Siegle
How To Do The Work: Dr. Nicole LePera
Better Behavior Podcast
https://www.drbeurkens.com/podcasts (https://www.drbeurkens.com/podcasts)
16 Jan 2023
The Pathways to Desistance Study
Host Christina Kleiser sits down to have a conversation with Dr. Edward Mulvey about his and his colleagues’ Pathways to Desistance Study, which examines what does (and does not!) support kid’s desistance from delinquency. Dr. Mulvey has dedicated his career to asking what works and what doesn’t. We look forward to hearing how this plays into our critical work.
Also, special thanks to Angela Vigil for the new song, Defender!
17 Jul 2022
Kids and Miranda
In the Season 2 premier of the In Defense of Children Podcast, host Cashauna Lattimore, talks with Eric Zogry and Caitlin Fenhagen about the seminal case of In RE JDB, a North Carolina case that made it all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled that the age of the child is a factor in deciding whether the child can understand and waive Miranda warnings. A small, but important, ruling in the world of youth defense, Eric and Caitlin, discuss the case’s origins and it’s impact on all of us as we continue the fight to defend children.
10 Feb 2022
Solitary Confinement and the Dangers of Detention
How does incarceration impact the development of the children who are held in detention facilities? What are the alternatives to arresting and holding kids in jail? How does the current approach impact children’s ability to succeed following court involvement, especially for those who are incarcerated due to non-violent offenses? And how do we as youth defenders advocate for change? To answer these questions Host Kristen Anderson interviews Mark Soler, Executive Director of the Center for Children’s Law and Policy in Los Angeles, about the psychological impacts of detention on youth and his work over the years to reform the juvenile justice system by ending solitary confinement of children and limiting their traumatizing experiences.
21 Nov 2021
Advocating for Children with Disabilities
While various federal and state laws provide protections for youth with disabilities, school districts and law enforcement routinely fail to adequately address the needs of these children before simply deferring them to the courts. Thus, three to five times as many youth with disabilities are involved with the juvenile justice system compared with the general public school population. So in this episode Host Kristen Anderson sits down with the dream team from Disability Rights Tennessee, Assistant Legal Director Sherry Wilds and Staff Attorney Daniel Ellis, to learn more about advocating for the rights of our most vulnerable clients.
1 Nov 2021
All Things Competency
Host Chris Kleiser talks through adjudicative competency and youth rights waivers with none other than the grandfather of competency, Dr. Thomas Grisso. What are some red flags that should raise the question of competency? Chris and Dr. Grisso take a deep dive into all of the questions.
11 Aug 2021
Trauma 101
Host Chris Kleiser talks with Dr. Keith Cruise, Professor of Psychology at Fordham University, about all things trauma and how it’s more than an ACEs score. Dr. Cruise is the Director of Clinical Training and a Co-Director of the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice, a technical assistance center that is part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. He has regularly been hired as an expert on cases in Tennessee and happens to be the expert on the Tyshon Booker case, discussed in Episode 2. In this episode, Dr. Cruise dives into what the research tells us about how our client’s traumatic experiences shape their lives and how we as defenders can incorporate trauma-informed practices in our representation.
26 Jul 2021
Defending Noncitizen Youth: Padilla v. Kentucky
Co-host Chris Kleiser chats with University of California Davis Professor Holly Cooper on her work representing kids in ICE custody and shares some tips on working with our noncitizen clients. Together, they review Padilla v. Kentucky, the foundational Supreme Court case that gives defenders guidance on our ethical obligations to clients who are not citizens.
12 Jul 2021
Juvenile Sex Offender Registries Need to End
July 1 marked the 10th anniversary of Tennessee’s Juvenile Sex Offender Registry. In Tennessee, kids can be placed on a lifetime private registry if adjudicated of certain offenses involving delinquent sexual behaviors. There are hundreds of kids on Tennessee’s registry and nationally the Juvenile Law Center estimates there are over 200,000 kids on registries in 38 states…some states have no bottom age when kids can be placed on registries and so there are kids who were as young as 8 when their alleged delinquency occurred that placed them on a registry. With Host Christina Kleiser, Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau discusses her 30 years of research on child sexual abuse and tells us why registries harm children, families, communities and public safety.
28 Jun 2021
Law Enforcement in Schools
Host Kristen Anderson interviews Daniel Losen, the Director of Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA’s Civil Rights Project, about school policing’s contribution to the school-to-prison pipeline. Dan explains how it came to be that police were introduced into school systems, what the data has shown on the efficacy of these security measures, and what training is desperately needed for officers and administrators to improve these disturbing statistics. He then delves into what school districts should consider when revisiting their contracts with law enforcement and how we as defenders can be better prepared to represent students encountering police during school.
14 Jun 2021
Trauma & Policing
In this episode, Cashauna talks with Kris Henning, distinguished professor and director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown Law, about her work on trauma and policing. Kris breaks down the research about how police encounters can create traumatic events in the lives of black and brown youth. She also provides some practical tips to youth defenders about how to use this research to the benefit of our clients.
31 May 2021
Kids Sentenced to Life: The Case of Tyshon Booker
Host Cashauna Lattimore talks with Assistant Appellate Defender Jonathan Harwell about kids who are sentenced to life in prison, specifically the case of Tyshon Booker, who was sentenced to life in prison for a murder that he committed when he was 16 years old. Tyshon, who is also Cashauna’s nephew, and his case demonstrate the perils of the current sentencing scheme in Tennessee. Cashauna and Jonathan also discuss new developments in the law and how there may be some hope for parole for kids who are sentenced to life.
16 May 2021
54 Years Defending Gault's Promise
Fifty-four years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized for the first time that juvenile court cases are adversarial criminal proceedings. Therefore, the Court held that children are entitled to due process and a right to an attorney when facing charges in delinquency court! To commemorate this landmark case, a small group of youth defenders decided to start the In Defense of Children Podcast, where we hope to contribute to building our community of defenders and raise our level of practice we bring on behalf of these kids every day! On our very first episode, Host Christina Kleiser talks with Memphis Defense Attorney and President of the Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Mike Working, and Ebony Howard, Deputy Director of the National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC) about the unrealized promises of In re Gault (1967). Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on In Defense of Children Podcast are our own and nothing should be interpreted to constitute legal advice. No information contained in this episode should be construed as legal advice from the Podcast, individual hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter.
15 May 2021
In Defense of Children Podcast Trailer
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