Washington Lawyer - June 2019 - 44

SPECIAL COVERAGE

2019 JUDICIAL & BAR
CONFERENCE

O

n April 12 nearly 500 members of the legal
community turned out for the 2019 District of
Columbia Judicial and Bar Conference, addressing
issues around the theme "Children and the Law:
Protecting the Future."
Held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, the day-long
conference featured 14 seminars covering topics such as the psychological toll
of racism on youth, help for immigrant children involved in litigation, support
for LGBTQ youth, and the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence and machine
learning.
The impact of trauma on children entering the criminal justice system was a
recurring touchstone throughout the conference. Moderated by D.C. Attorney
General Karl A. Racine, the morning's plenary panel addressed how to recognize
and respond to traumatized children and adolescents. Panelists reported on the
alarming numbers of children who end up in the criminal justice system after
dealing with trauma.
"One hundred percent of young people in the child welfare system suffered at
least one case of trauma. Ninety-two percent had more than one instance of
trauma. Forty-two percent experienced four or more. This was just for young
people who were under six years old," said Eduardo R. Ferrer, legal and policy
director of D.C. Lawyers for Youth and one of the panelists, citing statistics from
the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study.
44 WASHINGTON LAWYER

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JUNE 2019

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By John Murph

In the District of Columbia, based on studies conducted by the Coalition for
Juvenile Justice, 90 percent of children reported one or more instances of
ACEs, and 40 percent reported four or more, Ferrer said. "We shouldn't be
asking whether or not children have endured trauma. The question is, how
much trauma have they endured and how are we going to respond to that
trauma?"
Jennifer Morris, director of the Guardian ad Litem Program at the Children's Law
Center, said children dealing with trauma oftentimes don't have the ideal coping
mechanisms and behavioral skills to best present themselves in the court system.
"The court is a very scary place; it's adversarial by definition," explained Morris,
adding that previous traumatic experiences may shape a child's behavior with
police, lawyers, and judges. "So, the kids may be triggered and think [the court]
is an unsafe environment . . . There may already be a history of distrust with law
enforcement or the courts. So, it's more difficult for [the children] to engage in
the process."
The seminar "Representation & Rehabilitation: Protecting the Post-Disposition
Rights of Children" featured a youth named Kevin, who shared that he had been
committed to the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) for seven
years without having a clear understanding of what was happening. "I was 13
years old [when I entered DYRS]. I didn't know much about the law or even
school," Kevin said.
It was only when Kevin met Whitney Louchheim, cofounder of Open City
Advocates, that he finally had a lawyer who advocated for and achieved his
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Washington Lawyer - June 2019

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