ABSTRACT
The Public Defender Service (PDS) for the District of Columbia has an expansive, specialized juvenile unit for the provision of high-quality defense representation for children charged with delinquency offenses. In the late 1990s, PDS began to consider what form of representation would work best for juvenile clients. PDS lawyers quickly realized that youth have needs that differ significantly from their adult clients. The Civil Legal Services Unit of PDS grew out of the agency's effort to build a holistic juvenile unit that would meet the comprehensive needs of children in the delinquency system. Looking back, the period from 1997 to 2001 was a revolutionary time in PDS's thinking about how best to represent juvenile clients. By collecting data to demonstrate the merits and success of the specialized juvenile unit, the director was able to convince Congress to incorporate juvenile social workers and special education attorneys into the office's annual budget.
