Field Note—Serving Miller youth: An Interprofessional Initiative for Educating Law and Social Work Students

The Miller v. Alabama decision found mandatory juvenile life sentences without the possibility of parole unconstitutional and extended the Graham v. Florida requirements to offenders convicted of a homicidal offense. This development in case law provides law and social work students with opportunities for learning to work together in addressing the needs of serious and violent juvenile offenders. This field note reviews these legal developments and describes a promising interprofessional training program that prepares law and social work students to provide holistic defense services to juvenile lifers eligible for consideration for release from imprisonment. This note also describes an inchoate area of forensic social work practice requiring the services of release planning and reentry specialists.