Juvenile Services Program Paralegal
Location: Washington, DC
Job Vacancy #: PDS-2025-31
Salary: $58,811 - $81,071
Closing Date: August 22, 2025
The incumbent provides a number of paralegal and administrative functions to support the mission of the organization. The focus of the position will be to support JSP’s legal practice in support of youth incarcerated in DYRS’s juvenile detention facilities and reintegrating into the community, and CDD’s community engagement priorities and events. The incumbent reports to the Deputy Chief of JSP.
Division Overview:
The Community Defender Division (CDD) provides services through two specialized programs. The Prisoner Reentry Legal Services program for adult clients, and the Juvenile Services Program for juvenile clients.
Position Description:
The JSP Paralegal will work at the Youth Services Center (YSC) and New Beginnings detention facilities to monitor youths’ placement, assess the legality of their length of stay, assess youths’ programming options and opportunities, interview clients and assist in preparing for institutional disciplinary hearings, provide confidential meeting space to ensure communication between youth and their legal teams, and other tasks as assigned by the JSP Deputy Chief.
Major Duties:
The Paralegal's duties may include, but are not limited to:
- Responding to client requests for information; contacting appropriate authorities at various government agencies to address client inquiries; serving as a liaison to other PDS divisions on client-related issues; contacting appropriate authorities at DYRS, out-of-state facilities, BOP, and DOC to set up attorney-client visits and attorney-client telephone calls; communicating with family members of clients.
- Drafting and editing motions for filing in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (DCSC) and other administrative bodies, and ensuring their timely service and filing.
- Performing legal and non-legal research on issues pertinent to the rights of youth during incarceration and reentry, and drafting memos explaining the applicability of rulings and opinions to the work of the division.
- Requesting, reviewing, and organizing a broad range of client records in support of JSP’s representation and litigation.
- Supporting the reestablishment of the JSP hotline and responding to inquiries received and triaging questions from incarcerated youth, their family members, and others.
- Participating in CDD events, with an emphasis on community outreach, training, and education consistent with the PDS mission. Assisting at workshops for formerly incarcerated clients and other community members affected by the criminal and juvenile legal systems. Preparing materials (booklets, flyers, PowerPoint presentations, etc) for training sessions conducted by division attorneys; creating synopses of cases relating to youths’ rights and reentry issues for use in training sessions on recent developments in the law; and developing training materials for internal PDS use and external trainings.
- Assisting JSP and other division staff with the court-based electronic case filing system, case management, archiving, systems development, and data analysis; and
- other duties as assigned.