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As a public defender, I was on the front line everyday trying to fulfill my unique role as a juvenile defender and to surmount the systemic barriers presented to me due to lack of resources. As I continue to work with public defenders and court appointed counsel across the Southeast, I find they are struggling to provide adequate representation for children because they lack training, access to information, and are unable to seek assistance of mental health professionals, educational experts, social work specialists, and others in this field.
I am shocked to now know with such certainty that youth who had the means to retain private counsel were less likely to be convicted and more likely to be sent back to juvenile court, regardless of racial or ethic group. As a society deeply rooted in justice and fairness, we cannot stand idle as a majority of our children in the justice system are denied the guarantees of the constitution because they lack the resources of the few.
Today I am here to call on our public officials at the federal, state and local levels to increase funding for public defenders and court appointed counsel so that they may begin to fulfill their unique role as a juvenile defender and begin to provide children the effective, quality representation they desperately need and deserve.