This month’s meeting features Scott Main, the Director of the Illinois Juvenile Defender Resource Center (JDRC). And will focus on

A justice system that treats accused and incarcerated juveniles differently than it treats adults is key to lowered crime rates and safer streets. Ongoing experience from other countries, including Northern Ireland, Germany, and Finland, show how they achieved their improvement. Illinois and other U.S. states could achieve the same benefits by re-examining their justice handling of juvenile offenders.Illinois recognized that juveniles are fundamentally different than adults when it founded the first court system devoted exclusively to juveniles in 1899, and by the mid-1920s, every other U.S. state (and most countries) had followed suit. Thanks to the Juvenile Justice Initiative, Illinois has raised the age of juvenile court to 18 and ended most “automatic” transfers of children to adult court – in compliance with international standards.  Further, again with JJI advocacy, Illinois took another huge step forward in 2006 by creating a completely separate Department of Juvenile Justice to oversee juvenile detention and incarceration.

Relying on over two decades as a practitioner and teacher of criminal justice, Scott Main will address:

·       In what ways are accused and detained juveniles treated differently than adults, and why?

·       How is the current juvenile justice system falling short of its potential in Illinois and elsewhere?

·       What has the Juvenile Justice Initiative been doing (past and present) to improve the situation?

·       What are currently the highest priority areas for added improvement?

Come to hear an effective and efficient approach to reducing crime at all levels by dealing with it in its earliest stages.  And hear how the Juvenile Justice Initiative is leading the charge to make this happen.

 

BIO

Scott Main is the Director of the Illinois Juvenile Defender Resource Center (JDRC), a division of the Office of the State Appellate Defender (OSAD). The mission of the JDRC is to promote excellence in juvenile defense, and fairness for all youth in conflict with the law, through the development of model systems, advocacy, training, and resources. Scott actively helps guide Illinois policy efforts aimed at children and young adults. Scott has been a member of the Illinois Resentencing Task Force, which advised the governor and legislators on innovative ways to reduce the state’s prison population through resentencing. Scott has been a Council Member on the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council and a member of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority Board and the Adult Redeploy Illinois Board.

Scott began his legal career in 2002 as an Assistant Appellate Defender, representing youth and adults on judicial appeals. From 2012 through 2019, he was a Clinical Fellow in the Children and Family Justice Center, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Scott taught legal writing and the Criminal Appeals Clinic at DePaul University College of Law and currently teaches at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Scott holds an A.B. from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago.