Speaking Up for Youth: Law Student Daniela Hernandez-Gil on Juvenile Justice Advocacy
For rising Duke Law 3L Daniela Hernandez-Gil, working with the Wilson Center for Science and Justice has meant standing alongside young people navigating one of the most difficult moments of their lives.
As a a member of our McAtee JustScience Lab student supporting Sam Lawrence’s work with incarcerated children, much of Dani's work centers on service planning meetings held at Youth Development Centers — monthly reviews where incarcerated youth, facility staff, advocates, and others discuss a the child's progress and potential release plans.
Because juvenile sentences can be indefinite, Dani says those meetings carry enormous weight.
“We want to make sure that kids are being heard,” she said. “We also want to make sure that they’re not being punished for self-advocacy.”
“Self-advocacy is a really fundamental and important life skill,” Dani explained. “Especially for kids who may have been taken advantage of in other contexts or dealt with adverse circumstances in their lives. We don’t want kids to be punished for having needs and expressing those needs.”
These meetings allow Dani and Sam to serve as advocates and intermediaries for children, helping ensure that young people can voice their needs, concerns, and goals.
Through her work, Dani has also developed a deeper understanding of the realities of juvenile incarceration — and the misconceptions that often surround it.
“I think a lot of people believe that kids who end up in the juvenile justice system somehow had the easy way out,” she said. “People assume it’s less punitive than the adult system, but they don’t really recognize how the juvenile justice system...can produce these negative life trajectories for kids.”
While youth facilities may offer more educational programming or services than adult prisons, Dani emphasized that incarceration still comes with profound consequences.
a lot of people, think that youth development centers are super different from prison...they have more access to resources and schooling and education. And while those things are true, it is a huge punishment for our kids to spend an indefinite amount of time incarcerated after their offense, because depriving someone of their basic childhood experiences can be really problematic.
Despite the challenges of the work, Dani says the young people she works with continue to inspire her optimism.
“I think now that I’m on the other side, I’m fueled by hope,” she said. “The children that we work with really make this worthwhile and possible. They have the best outlooks, the greatest drive, amazing work ethic, and they genuinely want to do better for themselves.”
Seeing that resilience firsthand has reinforced her commitment to advocacy and reform.
“Seeing them have that hope makes me really hopeful,” she said.
At the Wilson Center, Dani has found meaningful opportunities to combine legal advocacy with a broader commitment to justice and accountability for young people. She has carried that commitment with her to other work experiences as well, including with the Wake County Public Defender's Office working with attorneys advocating for youth and the North Carolina Office of the Juvenile Defender. This summer, Dani is working with the Durham Public Defender's Office with a focus on juvenile defense.