School Justice Project Staff Attorney Alejandra Whitney-Smith Selected as 2021 Youth Justice Leadership Institute Fellow
October 15, 2021/ Claire Blumenson
Washington, D.C.—School Justice Project (SJP) is honored to announce that Staff Attorney Alejandra Whitney-Smith has been named as a Fellow with the 2021 Youth Justice Leadership Institute (YJLI) with the National Juvenile Justice Network.
The YJLI Fellowship, which is now in its 11th year, is a competitive, national fellowship program whose stated mission is to “clear a broad path for people of color to lead us toward justice system reform. We seek to elevate the leadership of people of color who know how to transform the oppressive systems harming communities of color.” For more information on the 2021 cohort of YJLI fellows, please visit: https://www.njjn.org/our-work/2021-2022-youth-justice-leadership-institute-fellows.
On her selection, Alejandra said she is “honored to have been chosen as a YJLI fellow. It has always been my goal to dismantle oppressive carceral systems that have been longstanding barriers for marginalized people, and especially Black and Brown youth. Receiving this fellowship has afforded me the opportunity to learn from other advocates of color to effectuate change. I am excited to use this knowledge to work on behalf of young people to ensure that their needs are centered and that they can live full and free lives.”
Over the course of the year, Alejandra will work with the other advocates and organizers to learn about the juvenile justice system structures and reform needs, effective advocacy and organizing techniques, and further develop leadership skills through the mentorship pairing within the program. Alejandra’s specific YJLI Advocacy Project will be to create a training model and information network that will educate defense attorneys and judges about the unique ways education-related advocacy reduces incarceration and will create practice standards for education attorneys in adult criminal cases. It will also re-examine the practice of holistic defense and the importance of non-traditional defense practitioners in aiding court-involved young people with their multifaceted areas of need.
As a staff attorney at School Justice Project (SJP), Alejandra focuses primarily on direct representation and systemic advocacy to change the educational landscape for older court-involved students with disabilities and create alternatives to incarceration. Alejandra earned her B.A. in Communication and Women and Gender Studies from Rutgers University in 2015 and graduated from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 2018. During law school, Alejandra had a particular focus on juvenile justice. She spent her 1L summer in D.C. where she wrote detailed legal memoranda on juvenile justice “reverse waiver” laws which was presented to D.C. Council. Alejandra also participated in Temple’s Law and Public Policy Program and wrote an extensive policy paper on waiver laws that allow children to be charged as adults in the United States.
During law school in Philadelphia, Alejandra also interned for the Federal Community Defender Office’s Capital Habeas Unit, Juvenile Law Center, and participated in the Sheller Center Clinic for Social Justice. Alejandra returned to D.C. for her last semester of law school, where she had the privilege to work directly with impacted young people as a legal intern for the Juvenile Services Program at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. After graduating law school, Alejandra clerked for the Honorable Lucretia Clemons, Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia, PA before returning to D.C as a staff attorney at SJP.