Gerardo Guerrero, Head Consul of the Consulate of Mexico in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was awarded the 2019 Outstanding Advocate for Children In Prison Award on December 6th in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Juvenile Justice Advocates International (JJAI) gives out the award annually to recognize individuals who have done outstanding work to make our vision a reality – […]
JJAI piloting has a positive impact on adolescents in conflict with the law
Juvenile Justice Advocates International showed the results of the pilot entitled: “Supervision of measures in freedom for adolescents in conflict with the law”, in the Superior Court of Justice of Chihuahua. At the event, it was explained that the tool was carried out on 52 adolescents from different regions of Chihuahua who had non-custodial sanction […]
JJAI visits Bolivia to talk about Mexico’s Juvenile Justice Reforms
Sarahi Garcia Martinez – National Project Director for JJI Mexico – shares in La Paz, Bolivia “I must clarify, this has been the experience in Mexico” I kept repeating such statement during my intervention at the International Conference on Restorative Justice for Juveniles in Conflict with the Law in La Paz, Bolivia. Our current statutes […]
Detention as a Last Resort for Teens in Guerrero
“Now we have concrete measures that are more transparent,” said Elizabeth, the juvenile detention center psychologist in Guerrero state. Juvenile Justice Advocates International (JJAI) finished our first training on implementing our Pre-Trial Detention Risk Assessment Instrument in Guerrero last November, making it the first state to fully implement the National Risk Assessment Model adopted last […]
Welcoming Loretta at Guerrero Juvenile Detention Center
By Loretta Taylor On a sunny afternoon, I sat across from 19 year old young man, who I will call Nicólas, at a prison in the State of Guerrero. I was there to interview him about his experience and evaluate if we can offer support in some way. Nicólas, who is currently serving about a […]
Advocating for a 30-day limit to pretrial detention in Geneva and Paris
In May we released our new report “Children in Pretrial Detention: Promoting Stronger International Time Limits” which recommends that children spend no longer than 30 days in detention awaiting trial. Along with our partners from the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center and American University Washington College of Law International Human Rights Law Clinic, we […]
Marco Antonio and Children in Detention
Last Tuesday, January 23rd, Marco Antonio Sánchez a 17-year-old high School student and his friend got off a Metrobus in Mexico City. The local police accosted Marco and carted him away. Marco had no criminal history and was not doing anything wrong. That kicked off a frantic five-day search for Marco by his parents, friends […]
These people will change the system…
This past week we conducted our first training seminar for juvenile detention center personnel – guards, counselors, social workers and probation officers. We spent a week training them on human rights, prevention of torture, supervising teenagers on release programs and other topics critical for the improvement of Mexico’s juvenile justice system. As we were […]
Proposed Legal Reform to Limit Juvenile Pretrial Detention
(Video only available in Spanish) Last September 28th, Congressperson Victor Manuel Sanchez Orozco, of the Movimiento Ciudadano party, presented a legal reform to the National Juvenile Justice System Law in Mexico´s National Congress. Juvenile Justice Advocates has been working with Congressperson Clemente Castañeda Hoeflich and Congressperson Sanchez, this year to improve the juvenile justice system. […]
Rebecca Rosefelt Goes to Prison
Special post by Rebecca Rosefelt, our 2017 Summer Intern: I had prepared myself for the worst. Over the year I’d read a variety of articles and stories on prison: stories about inmates who fought for prison education; a journalist who went undercover as a correctional officer; an exposé on visiting relatives who were molested by […]