Meet CJDC's New Executive Director, Kristin Ladd
Kristin Ladd is a native Coloradoan and has a long history of representing the indigent and underprivileged in the legal world. Prior to working at CJDC, she practiced for over five years at the Public Defenders Office in both El Paso and Jefferson County, representing indigent adults and children facing all levels of criminal charges. After spending the first eighteen years of her life in Boulder, Ms. Ladd started her college education by attaining an undergraduate degree in political science and anthropology from Colorado College in Colorado Springs. She then continued her studies at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, where she focused on Public Interest Law and Criminal Justice and ultimately received her Juris Doctorate degree. During that time, she worked for the Tribal Court Public Defense Clinic representing indigent members of the Tulalip and Squaxin Island tribes, and was an active member with Law Students for Reproductive Justice and the Incarcerated Mothers Advocacy Project. Kristin also had the opportunity to work as a judicial extern for the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands, where she focused on alleged war crimes that occurred during the conflicts in former Yugoslavia. Kristin loves to travel and has taught English to children and adolescents in Japan, Mexico and Spain. Currently, she lives in Denver and continues to represent juveniles in criminal cases.
Juvenile Defender's Guide to Immigration Issues in Juvenile Proceedings Published by NJDC

Here's a link to the National Juvenile Defender Center's recent handbook for defenders representing non-citizen children, which you can also find on CJDC's website HERE.  Hans Meyer has reviewed this handbook and endorses it.  CJDC will be holding a CLE focused on immigration consequences of juvenile adjudications, including information on expungement and its possible impacts on immigration proceedings, before the end of the year.  We'll circulate registration information as soon as we finalize the curriculum.

De-criminalizing Childhood, One Case at a Time

Our education law attorney Elie Zwiebel has been doing a tremendous job fighting unjust suspensions and expulsions, and getting the proper school supports and services for his clients.  With the help of a grant from the Nord Family Foundation, Elie has pushed the Colorado Juvenile Defender Center into the middle of the fight over equity for our most vulnerable students.  One such student who received Elie's guidance and legal expertise was constantly being suspended and referred to law enforcement despite having an individualized education plan that called for remedial measures to be taken when he acted consistent with his mental health diagnoses.  Elie correctly pointed out the school's violations of this student's federal education rights.  Now, instead of facing the prospect of attending a different school far away from his home, Elie got the school district to put the student back in the classroom at his local school.  And the school district agreed to expunge the student's disciplinary record.  Congrats Elie!    
CANCELED - CJDC/OADC Fees and Costs Training

Thank you to those who expressed interest in our Fees and Costs CLE.  Unfortunately, due to low registration, we are no longer able to hold this training.   We think low registration numbers reflect that more education needs to be done so that juvenile practitioners appreciate the gravity of the problem fees and costs represent, as a first step to rallying Colorado's juvenile defender community to take on this issue.  

In place of the in-person training, we will be working with the Berkeley Policy Advocacy Clinic to put together a free toolkit for attorneys addressing fees and costs.  The toolkit will be available within the next 60 days.