Assistant Public Defender Honored for Efforts in Juvenile Justice

                                    NEWS RELEASE

COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES 

                                    Contact:  Judy Hammond, Director of Public Affairs, (213) 974-1363                                                                    Brian Lew, Assistant Director, (213) 974-1652  

                                                                   July 28, 2009

 

Winston Peters Receives ABA Juvenile Justice Award

Assistant L.A. County Public Defender Winston A. Peters, a member of the MacArthur Foundation’s Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network in California, is being honored by the American Bar Association (ABA) for his advocacy and commitment to children in the field of juvenile justice.

Peters will receive the Livingston Hall Juvenile Justice Award on July 31 during the ABA's annual conference in Chicago.   The award commemorates Livingston Hall, a leader in juvenile justice and professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, and is given in recognition of outstanding commitment and service in the field of juvenile justice and advocacy on behalf of children impacted by the juvenile justice system.

Peters oversees the executive and administrative duties for the public defender and chief deputy public defender, including providing oversight of the fiscal budget, human resources and management information systems. He also manages the Special Operations Bureau’s Juvenile Division, which includes the juvenile mental health and drug courts, restorative and collaborative justice programs, adult drug courts/Prop 36 courts, re-entry programs, initiatives and grants.

Peters serves as the governor's appointee on the California State Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and serves on the Advisory Board of the UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law's Juvenile Justice Policymaker Education Project. He was recently elected assistant secretary-treasurer of the California Public Defenders Association and serves as the chairperson of its Juvenile Justice Subcommittee.

Recently Peters testified before the Los Angeles City Council's Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development about the holistic legal advocacy that the Public Defender Office's Juvenile Division provides its clients and the leadership role his office takes in collaborative juvenile justice programs.  Subsequently he testified before the entire City Council and was presented with a resolution for leadership and commitment to holistic legal advocacy on behalf of children and families impacted by the juvenile justice system.

A graduate of the University of California Hastings College of the Law, Peters received his bachelor's degree in history from the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County Public Defender is the oldest and largest such office in the United States.