Juveniles Should Be Entitled to Credit for Time Spent in Pre-Trial Detention

On September 9, 2020, Attorney Jellison appeared in the first day of SJC Zoom arguments asking the Court to affirm a juvenile court's order granting her client credit for the time he spent in pretrial detention against the confined portion of his DYS commitment. Attorney Jellison's client spent 6 months in pretrial detention. Adults receive credit for the time they spend in correctional facilities pretrial against custodial sentences. For juveniles, however, this time is dead time. DYS does not use all of its rehabilitative tools in pretrial detention, and the time is not deducted from post-adjudication confinement. Confinement in a jail-like setting is profoundly damaging to youths' well-being. And pretrial detention burdens the exercise of important pre-trial and trial rights. Further, the youth most likely to be held pretrial and suffer these harms are the Commonwealth's most vulnerable: Black, Hispanic and/or Latino, and multi-system youth. Hopefully the SJC will see the policy against pretrial detention credit as unfair and take steps to provide credit to youth.