Chris Hawthorne was appointed to the transition team for Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón in 2020.
The Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing Clinic was founded in 2012 to advocate on behalf of wrongly convicted youth and youth sentenced to unjustly lengthy adult prison sentences, and to serve as a research and education center dedicated to reform in the areas of juvenile sentencing and rehabilitation. Its system reform work includes policy advocacy on issues such as resentencing for youth sentenced to Life Without Parole (LWOP), and early parole opportunities for youth sentenced as adults. The JIFS Clinic has brought its clients’ experiences and voices to the table, ensuring that new policies are informed by the individuals directly affected by them and designed to address barriers JIFS has witnessed its clients experience.
Because of the JIFS Clinic’s and the CJLP’s expertise in Los Angeles juvenile justice and criminal justice systems, JIFS Clinic Director Christopher Hawthorne was appointed to the transition team for Los Angeles County District Attorney, George Gascón, when he was elected in 2020. DA Gascon is one of a number of prosecutors elected throughout California and the United States in the wake of the recent civil unrest and the nation’s growing realization that the existing criminal legal system is broken.
A crucial corrective of the legal system is sentencing reform. This year, the JIFS Clinic launched a project in collaboration with the District Attorney’s office to implement DA Gascón’s Special Directive 20-14. This Special Directive created a Resentencing Unit in the Los Angeles County DA’s Office that is pledged to examine tens of thousands of out-of-policy sentences. The JIFS Clinic will assist this Resentencing Unit in formulating the protocols and adopting the best practices to ensure its success. Thus, in September 2021, the JIFS Clinic obtained partial funding for a post-graduate legal fellow to focus on this initiative for one year. This fellow will coordinate representation for an initial cohort of 60 clients as further described below whose experiences will inform recommendations to the District Attorney’s Office on how to implement the new Directive on a larger scale.
This new resentencing project builds upon the JIFS Clinic’s unique expertise with juvenile postconviction matters in order to achieve large-scale sentencing reform for the first time in Los Angeles County history, reform which will in turn influence similar efforts throughout the United States. The JIFS Clinic’s continued participation in this historic opportunity to redesign and implement the resentencing initiative from the defense side will make large-scale sentencing reform possible for the first time in Los Angeles County history.