The Hon. Jay D. Blitzman, First Justice-Massachusetts Juvenile Court, Middlesex Division, Ret.
Prior to his judicial appointment, Judge Blitzman was a founder and the first director of the Roxbury Youth Advocacy Project, a community based interdisciplinary public defender unit that created the basis for the development of a statewide department. Judge Blitzman also co-founded Citizen’s for Juvenile Justice (CfJJ) and serves on their advisory committee. He is a founder of Massachusetts Bar Association Juvenile and Child Welfare Section and was the first recipient of the MBA Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Award. Judge Blitzman was a co-founder of Our RJ, a school and pre-arraignment restorative justice initiative. Judge Blitzman also serves on the advisory committee of UTEC in Lowell, MA., and is an Access To Justice Fellow for More Than Words (MTW), based in metropolitan Boston and serving adolescents, Judge Blitzman was a member of the BBA Steering Committee on the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline. He currently serves on the ABA Commission on Youth at Risk and has been appointed as the ABA Advisor to the Criminalization of Student Discipline Committee of the Uniform Law Committee (ULL).
Judge Blitzman publishes and presents regularly on a wide array of issues, including racial and ethnic equity in all contexts and adolescent development. He teaches trial advocacy at Harvard Law, juvenile law at Northeastern University School of law, and a course on the cradle to prison pipeline at Boston College School of Law. Judge Blitzman chairs the juvenile committee of Northeastern University Law’s Criminal Justice Reform Group and is a faculty member of the Center for Law Brain and Behavior (Harvard-Mass. General Hospital), focusing on juvenile and emerging adult issues. He is a member of the National Juvenile Defender Center Judicial Advisory Council and has co-authored bench cards on honoring Gault, adolescent development, racial and ethnic bias, sexual orientation and gender, fines & fees & bail, and collateral consequences. In 2018 Judge Blitzman was the first recipient of the Massachusetts Bar Association Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare award and in 2019 he was honored ABA Livingston Hall Juvenile Justice Award. The Massachusetts public defender agency annual presents the Jay D. Blitzman Youth Advocacy Award. Judge Blitzman is also a Boston University Center on Antiracism Research Affiliate.
Significant presentations:
National Juvenile Defender Center Conference on Racial and Ethnic Equity, Presenter (June 2021)
Positive Youth Development, Moderator and Presenter, Massachusetts Bar Association (January 2021)
Deconstructing The Cradle to Prison Pipeline: Unintended Consequences? (November 2012, Franklin Pierce Law School, University of New Hampshire
Adolescent Brain Development and Juvenile Justice, (Harvard, Feb. 2020, with Robert Kinscherff)
Bail, Costs, and Fees, (Feb. 2020, Training in Dover, Delaware for annual juvenile court training)
“Empowering Youth”, Keynote, Annual Juvenile and Child Welfare Conference, Boston 2019- Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE);
Abolishing Juvenile Solitary Confinement ABA Webinar (Moderator 2019); Massachusetts Trial Court Transgender People In The Trial Court- Mandatory on Line Training for All Court Employees- Planner and Presenter (2018);
“Gault at 50:” (Keynote, Massachusetts Bar Association, 2017);
“What’s Age Got To Do With It”. Adolescent Development (NCJFCJ, N.Y.C. 2017); Community Based Alternatives for Schools and Police” (Keynote, Worcester, MA 2017);
“Theory and Scope of the Juvenile Court”- Debating the future of the juvenile court before the National Academy of Sciences National Resource Council (D.C. 1999);
“Are We Re-Criminalizing Status Offense Conduct?” , Keynote (Annual Conn. Juvenile Court Conference, Oct. 2004);
“The Future of Indigent Defense” (DOJ, D.C. 2000);
ABA panels moderated by Charles Ogletree; “A Call to Justice” (D.C. 2008), and “New Paradigms in Juvenile Justice (Boston 2009);
Cradle/School to Prison Pipeline; “Keeping Kids In School and Out of Court” (N.Y.C. 2014);
“Deconstructing The Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline, ABA-American Psychological Association conference, (D.C. 2014),
“Restorative Justice and the School-to-Prison Pipeline” (Annual JDAI Conference (Philadelphia, June 2014);
“Disrupting the Cradle to Prison Pipeline” (Keynote at the annual Massachusetts Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Conference,2014);
“Adolescent Development and Juvenile Practice” (ABA Annual Conference, Boston 2014);
“The Adolescent Brain and Juvenile Justice” (Boston ABA 2014);
“Juvenile Justice and the Adolescent Brain” ( MGH-Center on Law Brain & Behavior-CLBB, Harvard Medical School, 2015);
“Re-thinking Juvenile Justice“( Moderator, ABA Webinars (June 2015);
“Adolescent Brain Development: Youth Status and Juvenile Justice”; (Conference of Chief Justices and State Court Administrators, July 2015);
‘Alternatives to the School-to-Prison :Pipeline Conference”, (Civil Rights Unit of U.S. Attorney, Harvard School of Education, Cambridge, 2016);
“Positive School Climates- Keeping Kids In School” Keynote(Clark University, MA, 2016);
NCFJCJ Schools Pathways to Juvenile Justice, Atlanta, 2016;
Bi-Annual Keynote presentations for Middlesex Partnership for Youth Truancy Prevention Conference.
Jay also served as consultant for the MacArthur Foundation and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and testified before the Massachusetts Access to Justice Commission, and Presidential National Rape Elimination Commission.
Annual Massachusetts Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Conferences (Planning Committee and Presenter for annual Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) (1996- present)
Publications:
The State of Juvenile Justice 2021, ABA Criminal Justice Section (July 2021)
Transparency and Fairness: Open The Doors, Massachusetts Law Review (March 2021; Vol.102, Number 2)
Honoring Chief Justice Ralph Gants, Boston Bar Journal (January 2021)
We Need Truth and Reconciliation, Commonwealth Magazine (October 2020)
Seize The Opportunity For Expungement, Commonwealth Magazine (July 2020)
Justice for Some: A Tale of Two Americas, Juvenile Justice Update, Civic Research Institute (July 2020)
It’s Time To Raise The Age, Commonwealth Magazine (June 2020)
Police Aren’t Needed In Schools, Commonwealth Magazine (June 2020)
Where You Live Matters, Commonwealth Magazine (May 2020)
The State of Juvenile Justice 2020, ABA Criminal Justice (July 2020)
The State Juvenile Justice 2019, ABA Criminal Justice Section (July 2019)
Deconstructing The- School-to-Prison Pipeline (Boston Bar Association Journal (October 2018)
The State of Juvenile Justice 2018, ABA Criminal Justice Section (July 2018)
Gault’s Promise Revisited: The Search for Due Process, (Juvenile & Family Law Journal, NCJFCJ, July 2018)
Realizing Gault’s Promise of Due Process, (Arizona Attorney May 2017)
All Kids Deserve A Second Chance”, (Commonwealth Magazine 2016)
Are We Criminalizing Adolescence (ABA Criminal Justice, May 2015)
Children’s Rights and Relationships: A Legal Framework, (with Francine Sherman; in Juvenile Justice (Wiley @ Sons 2011)
Gault’s Promise; BARRY L. REV. (Vol. 9 Fall 2007)
“Access to Justice in Juvenile Court, MASS. L. REV. (Vol 93, No. 1, 2010)
Children’s Attorneys: Should They Be Advocates or Champions, (MA School of Law Winter 2004)
Delinquency Practice; Massachusetts Criminal Practice (Lexis- 1998- 2008)
Judge Blitzman chaired the Massachusetts Juvenile Court Best Dispositional and Sentencing Practice Committee and co-authored the final report (2016). He is also the Co-Editor of the Massachusetts Juvenile Court Bench Bar Book (MCLE 2003, 2008, 2011, 2014)
Juvenile Justice: Legal, Policy & Political Issues; with David Tannenhaus, Kimberly Kempf-Leonard, Barry Feld, Kate Richtman, Marie Osborne. Aaron Kupchik, Frank Zimring, James Bell, and Diane Geraghty (Focus On Law Studies, ABA Spring 2010) The Theory and Scope of Juvenile Court, (National Academies Press 2001- Juvenile Justice System Workshop, Appendix C)
The Massachusetts Juvenile Justice System of the 1990’s: Re-Thinking A National Model (Boston Bar Task Force on Juvenile Justice, with Reginald Lindsay, Wendy Waring, R.J. Cinquegrana, Anthony DeMarco, Jinane Elder- New England Journal on Criminal & Civil Confinement 1991),
Juvenile Law Basics (MCLE 1995, 1996); He was also an advisory board member for the Boston Bar Association publication, “Gideon’s New Trumpet” (Boston Bar Association Task Force on Expanding The Civil Right to Counsel, Sept. 2008)
Committee Appointments and Memberships:
ABA Advisory Member to Uniform Law Commission (ULC) on The Criminalization of School Discipline (Current)
ABA Commission on Youth At Risk (Committee Member (Current)
Boston Bar Association Steering Committee: Cradle to Prison Pipeline
Judicial Advisory Council- National Juvenile Defender Center; contributor to national juvenile bench cards on variety of topics (access to counsel; adolescent development; bail, fines, fees; racial and ethnic disparities and bias; sexual orientation, gender identification and expression; this activity is current, and cards are approved by National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ)
Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) Committee on Judicial Ethics
SJC Committee on Rules of Criminal Responsibility
SJC Study Group on Judicial Conduct
SJC Study Group on Eyewitness Identification
SJC Standing Committee on Eyewitness Identification (Current)
SJC Trial Court Jury Advisory Committee
Massachusetts Trial Court Committee on Fines, Fees, and Assessments
Chair and Contributor: Massachusetts Juvenile Court Best Dispositional Sentencing Practices Committee, Report and Bench Card
Juvenile Court Raise the Age Study Committee
Juvenile Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee
Designated Juvenile Court Mentor (Current)
ABA Criminal Justice and Juvenile Justice Committees (Current)
MBA Juvenile and Child Welfare Section Council (Current)
Boston Bar Association Criminal Justice and Juvenile Justice Committees
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
ABA and MBA Bar Association Foundation Member
Board and Advisory Board Appointments:
Our Restorative Justice Our RJ) Advisory Board; a co-founder and former Board Member of Our RJ, a diversionary restorative justice program in Middlesex County, MA.
Citizens for Juvenile Justice; (CfJJ) Advisory Board; Co-Founder and Advisory Board Member.
UTEC- Advisory Board Member
Lowell School Strategic Plan- Former Advisory Board Member
RISE Cambridge Health Alliance Initiative- Former Advisory Board Member
Light of Cambodian Children- former Board Member
Massachusetts Children’s Trust- former Board Member
Teaching Appointments:
Center on Law Brain and Behavior Faculty, Massachusetts General Hospital (Current)
Northeastern University School of Law: Juvenile Courts (Current)
Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop Team Leader (Current)
Boston College Law School- Deconstructing-The Cradle to Prison Pipeline (Current)
Boston University School of Law- Community Courts
Suffolk Law School- Trial Advocacy and Criminal Practice
University of Massachusetts (Lowell) School of Criminology and Justice Studies
(Juvenile Justice)
Awards:
Livingston Hall Juvenile Justice Award (ABA Criminal Justice Section 2019)
Rebecca Pries Indispensable Friend Award- Middlesex Juvenile Court Clinic (Adolescent Consultation Services 2019).
Multi-Systemic Services (MST) Whatever It Takes All-Star (National MST Services Award 2019)
State Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative Appreciation Award (2019)
Massachusetts Bar Association Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Award (first recipient, 2019)
Lowell 100 Honoree- International Institute of New England for supporting immigrant and refugee populations in Lowell, MA (2019)
Servant of Justice Award (Greater Lowell Bar Association 2016)
Adolescent Consultation Services Award (Middlesex Juvenile Court Clinic 2015)
Massachusetts Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative Special Recognition Award (2013)
Justice Leo Lydon Award (Massachusetts Juvenile Bar Association 2009)
Boston Bar Association John Brooks Public Service Award
Trial Court Innovation Grant to Develop Diversionary Restorative Justice Program in Middlesex County (2014)
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges School Pathways to Juvenile Justice Initiative (In 2013, Middlesex County Juvenile Court was one of sixteen sites selected to participate in the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges School Pathways to Juvenile Court Initiative).
Boston Inns of Court Best Actor Oscar (2007-2008)
Judge Blitzman is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild, Actor’s Equity, and has served as the writer’s consultant on the television series The Trials of Rosie O’Neil, and Judging Amy.
The Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS- the state’s public defender agency) annually presents the Jay D. Blitzman Youth Advocacy Award.
