By Kim Tandy
Special to NKyTribune
Twenty five years ago, with the help and advice of many lawyers and a few insightful judges here in Northern Kentucky, we incorporated the Children’s Law Center. We began with the help of Brighton Center, where I spend several years as a social worker, Youth Services Director, and eventually Associate Director. The Children’s Law Center was conceived the year I graduated from Chase Law School, and we have been partners ever since.
As a new lawyer in 1989, I could not have imagined how the field of child advocacy would emerge in twenty five years, nor the impact that the Children’s Law Center could have on individual children and youth, or within the systems that are designed to protect, treat or educate them. I never envisioned that we would be instrumental in major legislation to enhance Kentucky’s juvenile code, rewrite the rules regarding restraint and seclusion of children, and help to define the role that lawyers play in divorce and custody matters of behalf of children. I had no idea how effective legal advocates could be in assuring that every child has access to education, and that whether homeless, mentally or physically disabled, or incarcerated, access to a free and appropriate education for every child is guaranteed. And at that time, no one talked about the indiscriminate shackling of youth, ending the school to prison pipeline, banning solitary confinement practices, or creating evidenced based programming.
As a new organization, we fought to remedy unconstitutional conditions in the Kenton County Jail, which at the time housed youth in a separate wing on the 6th floor. We helped to close the facility and were instrumental in that litigation in ensuring that a separate freestanding juvenile detention facility was built for the region. As advocates within the state, we worked to ensure that youth who were locked up in secure confinement had access to lawyers. And we worked very successfully with Department of Public Advocacy to ensure access to counsel and improve the quality of representation for youth in the delinquency system. We have represented thousands of children in youth in family court matters, including custody and guardianships, school related cases, and children who are victims in criminal proceedings who must testify. We have challenged the disparate outcomes of school based discipline policies discipline where youth of color and youth with disabilities are largely over-represented. Our partners at Kentucky Youth Advocates, Department of Public Advocacy and Legal Aid organizations have worked with us on a myriad of other issues pertaining to mental health, civil rights and over-incarceration. Our strong alliance with Salmon P. Chase Law School has brought us a full time clinic program housed at our headquarters in Covington. An office in Lexington is going strong, and a newly created Berea office is off to a great start.
As our reputation grew in both individual cases and systemic changes, we were sought out by Ohio funders to recreate some of the reforms there. For more than a decade, we have developed multiple statewide partners in Ohio to litigate, create better policies, and train and educate lawyers and others about children’s rights. With outstanding private counsel such as the Al Gerhardstein and Jennifer Kinsley, we have closed the doors on 5 large juvenile prisons and reformed a myriad of conditions in the remaining institutions operated by the Department of Youth Services. We have ensured a system is in place in these facilities whereby youth can access lawyers, and we revamped the system of release decision making once youth are incarcerated. Our work has expanded at the policy level to limit the number of youth in the adult system and the places they can be housed to achieve better outcomes for this population. And to help strengthen the system of juvenile defense, we partner with the Ohio Public Defender to train lawyers each year who represent youth in the delinquency system. We are helping to solve the re-entry needs of youth coming out of incarceration so that they are no longer caught in the cycle of being locked up.
For the last 10 years, we have served as the regional affiliate of the National Juvenile Defender Center, a trade organization for the juvenile defense bar which has given us a presence and a defense agenda in other states such as Indiana, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas. Our lawyers are known for their expertise and incredible work their respective areas, and our partnerships and collaborative efforts span across the country.
It has been a great ride. Over the next year, I hope to share some of the individual stories about our work, and provide more depth on a number of issues through this forum. The need for children’s advocacy is still strong, but our twenty-five years of experience gives us an edge on meeting the challenge.
Kim Brooks Tandy is executive director and founder of the Children’s Law Center, Kentucky, located in Covington.