Children should only be detained as a
last resort for the shortest possible time

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About Us

“The first time I entered a juvenile prison in Latin America, I was shocked how many of the kids were waiting months and months to see a judge. Most have no hope of being released for years. When they are finally released, they go back to their communities with no support system. Lagging behind in school with no work skills, they have few options. Locking up kids for petty offenses actually makes crime worse in the long run as lives are needlessly thrown away… “

In 2013, Douglas Keillor is a human rights attorney. In 2012, Douglas moved to Mexico City as a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Fellow to research juvenile detention. In 2013, he founded Juvenile Justice Advocates International.

Latest News

Pass Minnesota juvenile justice sentencing reform act

Pass Minnesota juvenile justice sentencing reform act

Juvenile Justice Advocates International urgently calls on the Minnesota State Legislature to adopt the Minnesota Juvenile Sentencing Reform Act (HF 1300/SF 1325) and for the Governor to sign the bill to end juvenile life without the...

Report Anual 2023

Report Anual 2023

MOBILIZE AND EMPOWER: 445 JJAI seeks to minimize the deprivation of children’s liberty, protect their rights and promote positive youth development through policy advocacy, technical assistance and training, community engagement and...

Newsletter March 2023

Newsletter March 2023

Re-Entry Services in Mexico City February 21st, JJAI presented the Reentry Project in Mexico City. Our Reentry Services model has successfully helped over 100 children and their families receive post-detention supportsuch as food,...

Youth Detention and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is a potential humanitarian disaster in juvenile detention centers around the world. 1.4 million children are locked behind bars, often in terrible conditions (detained for months or years waiting to see a judge, abused, extorted, living...

Pass Minnesota juvenile justice sentencing reform act

Juvenile Justice Advocates International urgently calls on the Minnesota State Legislature to adopt the Minnesota Juvenile Sentencing Reform Act (HF 1300/SF 1325) and for the Governor to sign the bill to end juvenile life without the possibility of parole in the...

Report Anual 2023

MOBILIZE AND EMPOWER: 445 JJAI seeks to minimize the deprivation of children’s liberty, protect their rights and promote positive youth development through policy advocacy, technical assistance and training, community engagement and family mobilization. We currently...

Newsletter March 2023

Re-Entry Services in Mexico City February 21st, JJAI presented the Reentry Project in Mexico City. Our Reentry Services model has successfully helped over 100 children and their families receive post-detention supportsuch as food, education and psychological support...

Newsletter January 2023

A BUS TICKET TO HOPE For these children a busticket is freedom. Lalo is a 17-year-old boy who likes to talk about soccer with his grandfather and helps his grandmother bring home groceries from the market. Lalo was involved in a situation with the authorities, which...

Forgotten children at christmas time

In Mexico, and many other Latin American countries, there are many things to look forward to during the end-of-year Holidays. There is a celebration for the Virgen de Guadalupe, there are the Posadas, Christmas, New Year’s and in the beginning of January we celebrate...

Virtual hearings and good practices

Our National Director of Projects, Sarahí García, participated in the 4th National Meeting of the 2022 Comprehensive Criminal Justice System for Adolescents (SIJPA – Sistema Integral de Justicia Penal para Adolescente), where she spoke about good practices in...

Newsletter november 2022

MEXICO’S NEW NATIONAL DIRECTOR At Juvenile Justice Advocates International we are pleased to announce our new National Director in Mexico: Sarahí García! Sarahi has been with us for 5 years dedicating her hard work to children and young people in prison so they can...

Detecting needs at the CERTMI detention center

On October 26, we visited the CERTMI’s detention center facilities in the State of Durango to carry out a workshop directed by Psy.D. Melissa Hernandez, that will allow for the detection of specific needs of incarcerated children. Our aim is to understand how being in...

JJAI’S Newest staff member

At Juvenile Justice Advocates International we are always excited to welcome skilled staff members who support our transformation of the juvenile justice system and who believe in providing children in conflict with the law a second chance. Today we welcome Karla...

Wrapping up Mexico City’s detention conditions monitoring

During this past month, the last report on the Detention Conditions Monitoring, as well as the subsequent certification of the CEIPA juvenile detention center in Mexico City were carried out. 8 areas were evaluated at this detention center and the results will be...

Where we work

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Chihuahua

A national leader in criminal procedural reforms, our pilot project in Chihuahua started in 2016. Since that time the rates and duration of pretrial detention have declined

Durango

Despite being a smaller jurisdiction, Durango is constantly looking to improve. Durango is the first state where both the Executive Branch and Judicial Branch have signed Memorandum of Understanding

CDMX

Looked to as the national leader in youth justice practices, Mexico City has more youth in detention than any other jurisdiction but has also developed a robust probation office and numerous alliances with nonprofits

Guerrero

After years of struggle and security issues, we decided in 2022 to close our project in Guerrero. We were able to implement our pretrial screening instrument to ensure low-risk youth stay in their communities. And we provided support to over 220 youths, as part of our Mobilize and Empower project.

Chiapas

In the state of Chiapas, at the invitation of the state judiciary, we conducted a study to assess the viability of implementing our projects. In 2022, our team presented the results and recommendations.

The state government is now deciding how they want to collaborate with us in the future.

There are 1.4 million children in prison right now around the world with devastating effects on their lives