Joanna Visser Adjoian

February 19, 2021 | The Legal Intelligencer

As our country continues to reckon with its deep and omnipresent legacy of racism and White Supremacy, and Pennsylvania's specific and tragic legacy of judicial and institutional abuse within the juvenile justice system, the call to reform a juvenile justice system that has perpetrated countless abuses on Black and Brown children is louder than ever.

By Joanna Visser Adjoian and Lauren Fine

6 minute read

January 10, 2020 | The Legal Intelligencer

According to Mayor Jim Kenney, who began his second term as mayor on Jan. 6, his stated goals this term include reducing gun violence and continuing the city's efforts to cut the jail population in half.

By Joanna Visser Adjoian and Cameron Holmes

5 minute read

November 23, 2018 | The Legal Intelligencer

In the course of more than four years of working directly with youth facing charges in the adult justice system, we have visited teenagers in Philadelphia's adult jails dozens of times. No matter how many visits we make, the inhumanity of the practice of holding youth as adults is striking, and painful to experience. It is wrong, and it should end.

By Lauren Fine and Joanna Visser Adjoian

7 minute read

October 20, 2017 | The Legal Intelligencer

Consider being a 16-year-old girl convicted of an adult felony, and sentenced to state prison.

By Joanna Visser Adjoian and Lauren Fine

9 minute read

August 22, 2016 | The Legal Intelligencer

The U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012), and Montgomery v. Louisiana, 136 S. Ct. 718 (2016), represent a sea change in the administration of justice for youth in our country. Separately and together, they provide hope, and they represent another rung in the ladder toward more thoughtful and humane sentencing for youth. Miller eliminated mandatory life in prison sentences for youth (under age 18), including homicide offenses, and Montgomery made Miller retroactive. Collectively, they impacted approximately 2,000 cases nationwide, including approximately 500 in Pennsylvania and 300 that originated in Philadelphia County.

By Lauren Fine and Joanna Visser Adjoian

13 minute read

October 23, 2014 | The Legal Intelligencer

In Pennsylvania, children can be charged as adults as young as age 10, and Pennsylvania imprisons more children for the rest of their lives without the possibility of parole than any other state in the country, which imprisons more children than any other country in the world. A new Philadelphia-based organization—the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP)—was created to support these children prosecuted in the adult criminal system and the lawyers who represent them by providing technical assistance for defense attorneys at sentencing and by supporting youth and their loved ones through the time the young people are released from prison.

By Lauren Fine and Joanna Visser Adjoian

5 minute read