Elizabeth Calvin
Elizabeth Calvin is an attorney and the senior advocate in the Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. Her work focuses on children, youth and young adults who face the harm of the juvenile and criminal systems, and she uses policy and legal advocacy as well as research and writing on human rights violations in order to effect strategic action for change. Calvin relies on the leadership of people directly impacted by human rights violations to determine the direction of her work, and she is in constant partnership with youth activists, faith groups, family members of incarcerated youth, survivors of crime, people in prison and people who were formerly incarcerated, among others.
Her leadership in coalition-grounded efforts in California has led to more than two dozen significant laws being passed, many with first-in-the-nation strategies to reduce incarceration and prioritize the potential of young people. These laws serve as models for change in other states, and Calvin regularly consults on legislative efforts across the country. In California, these laws include: youth are much less likely to be prosecuted as adults and instead must be provided services and educational opportunities in the youth system; young people never face police interrogation alone, without an attorney; the sentence of life in prison without parole for people under age 18 has effectively ended; and half of all prison parole hearings in the state benefit from the Youth Offender Parole law.
In addition, a series of laws Calvin worked on are shifting the youth justice system from being corrections-based to one focused on public health approaches; established the first office of youth justice and youth ombudsperson; and enacted the Youth Bill of Rights for youth who are locked up.
Calvin continues to work to end the use of life without parole (LWOP) sentences and established the LWOP Project at Human Rights Watch. She also helped initiate the National LWOP Leadership Council, and, in what is perhaps her most favorite role, she serves as an advisor to that body. More information about this work is at www.BeyondLWOP.org.
In addition to teaching law and policy at USC Gould, she is board member and advisor for several nongovernmental organizations and a regular speaker on justice issues.
Calvin is the author, or played a major role in conceiving and editing, of several Human Rights Watch reports on youth sentenced to life without parole, foster care and homelessness, and the effects of prosecuting of children under 16 as adults, including:
When I Die, They’ll Send Me Home: Youth Sentenced to Life Without Parole in California
When I Die, They’ll Send Me Home: Youth Sentenced to Life Without Parole in California, An Update
My So-Called Emancipation: From Foster Care to Homelessness for California Youth
Futures Denied: What California Should Not Prosecute Children as Adults
“I Just Want to Give Back” The Reintegration of People Sentenced to Life Without Parole
“Kids You Throw Away” New Jersey’s Indiscriminate Prosecution of Children as Adults
