We unite youth defenders, legal advocates, and allied organizations to confront racial injustice in DC's juvenile legal system and build a system rooted in young people's families and communities.
Coalition members work across DC's juvenile legal system every day: representing young people, building policy, investigating conditions in DYRS facilities, researching how the system actually performs, and equipping the people who can change it. The Youth Justice Project is where that work gets coordinated.
We develop and advance DC policy and legislation that shrinks the juvenile legal system, ends its racial injustice, and roots responses in family and community.
In practice: coordinated input on expanding the Ombudsperson for Children's jurisdiction over DYRS-committed youth, and a June 2026 letter urging the Council to fully fund the Credible Messenger Initiative.
We coordinate facility monitoring, joint comments on DYRS rulemakings, and shared accountability work for the public agencies responsible for young people in DC's care.
In practice: a July 2025 letter to restore funding for the Deputy Auditor for Juvenile Facilities Oversight, and a member-drafted redline on the DYRS Community Status Review Hearings rulemaking.
We publish DC-specific data and analysis that the city's young people, decision-makers, and residents need to understand the system as it actually operates.
In practice: recidivism figures from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, facility population trends from DC's auditors, and racial-disparity figures from DYRS dashboards, each paired with its source.
We coordinate shared messaging, public-facing materials, and training for the lawyers, advocates, and partners working on DC's juvenile legal system.
In practice: shared op-eds, fact sheets, and coalition letters, plus post-disposition representation training contributed to the broader DC bar.
So we publish them, with their sources, so anyone in DC can see the system as it actually operates.
Independent oversight is the cheapest accountability the District can buy, and DC has spent the last year proving why it is necessary. Read our coalition letters and the policy memo, and share the data with your Councilmember.
“Without an attorney, youth and their families are left alone to fight for the child's success, safety, and timely release from the system. When youth have an attorney during this critical time, they are more likely to feel that the process is fair and to experience positive outcomes.”
The Youth Justice Project unites DC's youth defenders, legal advocates, and allied organizations to confront racial injustice in the city's juvenile legal system and build a smaller, fairer system rooted in young people's families and communities.
We name and confront the racial injustice that defines DC's system, and measure our work by whether that disparity shrinks.
Every young person in the system is a child or young adult first, owed the respect and opportunity DC gives any other.
Young people belong with their families and neighborhoods. The system should reach for community supports first.
Public agencies that hold young people in their care answer to the public, with real oversight and real data.
We move as a coalition when we have consensus, and make space for members to lead in their own voices when we do not.
The Youth Justice Project is a voluntary alliance, an unincorporated nonprofit association under DC Code § 29-1101, and a legal entity distinct from any of its member organizations. It makes decisions by consensus. There is no steering committee. Open City Advocates serves as the administrative backbone, with no special voting authority.
How we operate