Kaye, et. al., Judith

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Brooklyn Law School: BrooklynWorks

Journal of Law and PolicyVolume 15Issue 3SCIENCE FOR JUDGES VIII:Regulating Pharmaceuticals and Scientific IssuesRegarding AsbestosArticle 152007The Disproportionate Number of Minority Youthin the Family and Criminal Court SystemsJudith Kaye, et. al.Follow this and additional works at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlpThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at BrooklynWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Law andPolicy by an authorized editor of BrooklynWorks.Recommended CitationJudith Kaye, et. al., The Disproportionate Number of Minority Youth in the Family and Criminal Court Systems, 15 J. L. & Pol'y (2007).Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlp/vol15/iss3/15THE DISPROPORTIONATE NUMBER OFMINORITY YOUTH IN THE FAMILY ANDCRIMINAL COURT SYSTEMS:INTRODUCTIONHon. Judith S. Kaye *Never have I more wanted to draw potential readers intoevery single page of a law journal feature than I do now.Concededly, I am partly motivated by pride in the wonderfulday-long program envisioned, assembled and actually presentedlast September at our Judicial Institute by two outstandinggroups within the New York State Unified Court System-theFranklin H. Williams Judicial Commission on Minorities(chaired by Judge Lewis Douglass) and the Family CourtJudges' Association (chaired by Judge Gayle Roberts), withJudge Cheryl Chambers as the constant guiding light. It is nosmall accomplishment to pull together a program of this quality,to fully engage two hundred very busy lawyers and judges, andto fill them with critical information and utter resolve to effectmeaningful change. They did it!But my motivation goes well beyond my pride in thatextraordinary day.* Chief Judge of the State of New York; Chief Judge of the Court ofAppeals of the State of New York. She is the first woman to occupy the StateJudiciary's highest office and the first woman to serve on New York'shighest court. She also serves as Chair of the Permanent Judicial Commissionon Justice for Children. She has served as President of the Conference ofChief Justices, Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Center forState Courts (2002-03) and Co-Chair of the Commission on the AmericanJury of the American Bar Association (2004 05). She is a graduate of NewYork University School of Law.905JOURNAL OF LAW AND POLICYThe subject of the material that follows-the disproportionatenumber of minority youth in the family and criminal courtsystems-demands the attention of every single one of us. Toomany children, overwhelmingly minority children, aregraduating from family court to criminal court, a "cradle toprison pipeline," in the words of Marian Wright Edelman andthe Children's Defense Fund. These children not only aredenied their birthright in our prosperous nation, but also go onto become the next generation of robbers, rapists, andmurderers. It's not just their future; it's ours too.As you will see in the ensuing pages, this is not hyperbole orrhetoric. It is fact. We can know the terrible path a child's lifemay take almost from birth. We can know, for example, whatlikely lies ahead for the low-birthweight baby born to a drug-addicted, teenaged, single mother. We can know the grimpicture ahead for many children just from the zip code wherethey reside. I cannot imagine that anyone reading these articlescould turn to the last page without asking, "What can I do tochange the picture?"Because we need fully engaged minds and hearts to changethe picture, I am grateful to the Journal of Law and Policy andits editors for enlarging the audience beyond those of us whowere privileged to attend the program at the Judicial Institute. Iam also grateful to Jessica Jean Kastner for her thoughtfulcontribution. She set out to do what each of us needs to do-study the facts and devise solutions to reduce the number ofminority youth (indeed, all youth) in the criminal and familycourt systems. Having myself agonized over the problem forwell over a decade, I have to admit that Ms. Kastner has comeup with several promising ideas.The challenge is for each of us to do likewise, and then toturn promising ideas into concrete action. It is, after all, thechildren's future-our nation's future too.906

The Disproportionate Number of Minority Youth in the Family and Criminal Court Systems

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The Disproportionate Number of Minority Youth in the Family and Criminal Court Systems

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