Macallair honored for juvenile advocacy

Dan Macallair, lecturer (School of Public Affairs & Civic Engagement) and executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, was honored by the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center (PJDC) for his decades of work in the field of juvenile justice. He was presented with the Juvenile Advocate of the Year Award for 2016 at PJDC’s 13th annual Roundtable Conference held last month in Rancho Cucamonga, California. PJDC is the largest membership organization of juvenile public defenders and defense counsel in the U.S., and Macallair is the first non-lawyer in the organization's history to receive the award. Macallair also delivered the event's keynote address, speaking on the theme “History of the California Youth Authority and Lessons Not Learned.” He detailed some of the findings of his new book, After the Doors Were Locked: A History of Youth Corrections in California and the Origins of 21st Century Reform. He also gave a brief history of California’s state youth corrections system, providing context for the cycles of reform that have taken place over the past century but which subsequently failed to create safe institutions for California’s youth.