Of the 850,000 youth in the U.S. juvenile justice system, youth of color account for about 68 percent according to the Children’s Defense fund—numbers that a national gathering of juvenile justice experts is addressing and hopes to eliminate in the future.
The Center for Health Equity Research (CHER) at Northern Arizona University is partnering with the Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and The NARBHA Institute to host a one-day event on Sept. 26 entitled The Consequences of Juvenile Justice System Involvement on the Health and Well-Being of Adolescents, Families, and Communities of Color, to be held at the High Country Conference Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
This workshop is the last in a series of three NASEM Roundtable on Health Equity events: the first focused on incarceration as a structural determinant of health and the second examined how race, ethnicity, drug control laws, and policies intersect within the criminal justice system.
Nationally recognized experts in justice and health, including Scott Bales, executive director, Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) of Denver and former Arizona Chief Justice (ret.), will be exploring the issue. Dr. Julie Baldwin, director of the Center for Health Equity (CHER) at NAU, and Dr. Mark Carroll, chief health officer and vice president of discovery and development at The NARBHA Institute, will help moderate the workshop, along with other members of the NASEM Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity.
Through a series of four panel sessions, attendees will examine strategies to transform juvenile justice involvement. They will also discuss established programs and policies that are successful in all aspects of the juvenile justice system including pre-involvement, involvement and post-involvement.
Workshop sponsors include NAU, CHER, The NARBHA Institute, the Arizona Biomedical Research Centre, Aetna Foundation, The Colorado Trust, Health Resources and Services Administration, HOGG Foundation, Merck & Co., Inc., and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Health Equity.
For more information or to register, visit the NASEM registration page.