Raised by the Courts: One Judge's Insight into Juvenile Justice
Irene Sullivan is a Circuit Court Judge in the Unified Family Court, handling juvenile delinquency, dependency and domestic violence cases. She is a nationally-recognized speaker on juvenile justice and truancy matters and a consultant to the Florida government. She is a vice president of the National Truancy Prevention Association; a member of the Blueprint Commission to reform juvenile justice in Florida, and part of a statewide taskforce on Disproportionate Minority Contact. She serves on advisory boards of Stetson University College of Law and Barry University Law School, the Juvenile Welfare Board, Ounce of Prevention for Florida, Inc., and PACE Center for Girls. She is currently working with the MacArthur Foundation in a project to improve public defender's representation of juveniles in court. The recipient of the St. Petersburg Bar Association Judicial Appreciation Award, the Ben C. Willard Award from Stetson University College of Law and the Children's Justice Award from the Salvation Army, Irene is a frequent speaker at conferences, universities and non-profit organizations. Irene has been an adjunct professor of law at Stetson University College of Law and is working to establish a juvenile justice clinic at the law school.