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Juvenile Regional Services' mission is to defend the rights and enhance the life opportunities of youth in Louisiana's juvenile justice system through high-quality, zealous, holistic, client-centered advocacy.

JRS is a nonprofit law office that is reinventing the way that public defenders advocate for youth in Louisiana. We work to build a fairer, more compassionate, and genuinely rehabilitative juvenile justice system.

In New Orleans, where JRS serves as the juvenile public defender, we provide holistic advocacy and wraparound services for the more than 1000 at-risk youth every year who are caught up in New Orleans' juvenile justice system. We defend children's rights, reduce recidivism and improve public safety by helping young people solve the root problems that can lead to arrest and impede rehabilitation. In our innovative model, each young person is represented by a multidisciplinary team - an education advocate, a social worker, an attorney, and an investigator - that develops and implements a comprehensive advocacy plan to help clients succeed in court, at school, and in all other aspects of their lives.

Statewide, JRS is a leader in defending the right of every child in Louisiana's juvenile justice system to high-quality legal representation, and in advocating for systemic juvenile justice reform. We pursue those objectives through strategies including legislative advocacy, litigation, and training and technical assistance for juvenile defenders across the state.