When Cat Birkenfeld, BA ’23, was a child, she passed a juvenile detention camp on her way to school every day. She remembers peppering her mother with questions about why those kids were there. The bridge between their experiences seemed to her both insurmountably vast and also merely a matter of chance. 

“It never sat right with me that they were in there and I was out here,” Birkenfeld said. “They may have made bad decisions, but I’ve made bad decisions too and I’m not in there. I felt like I owed something to these kids because they never really stood a chance and I didn’t know what to do with that feeling.”

Birkenfield is now entering her second year in the Master of Social Work (MSW) program at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, but she credits her decision to add the Social Work and Juvenile Justice minor during her undergraduate studies with providing the path to addressing those feelings from her childhood. It exposed her to a world she never knew and changed her entire career trajectory. 

“Social work specifically brings a social justice lens,” Birkenfeld said. “Not only do I get to work with kids directly but I also get to do the advocacy to hopefully ameliorate these really complex, difficult and oppressive systems standing in their way.” 

Challenging social injustice is one of the six core principles of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics. Yet, a recent study found that fewer than one-fourth of MSW programs nationwide offer a course specific to criminal justice. USC is one of the first universities in the nation to offer a criminal justice concentration specifically focused on juvenile justice. The Social Work and Juvenile Justice minor provides curriculum that combines students’ passion for social justice with greater understanding of its impact at the juvenile level where systems involvement typically begins. The end goal is to create a pipeline of socially conscious, motivated professionals who are able to apply a social work lens to a variety of disciplines. Since its launch in 2020, more than 60 undergraduate students across USC schools have enrolled in or completed the minor, and over 500 students have added at least one course to their degree studies. 

“System-impacted youth are a population that has been historically overlooked, denied and not seen as human,” said Assistant Teaching Professor Robert Hernandez, who spearheaded the creation of the minor and its curriculum and who actively partners with youth justice organizations across Los Angeles. “We need to recognize that incarceration doesn’t just affect the individual, it impacts the family and community and creates a tear in the fabric of society.” 

Firsthand experience with the juvenile justice system

The Social Work and Juvenile Justice undergraduate minor consists of 16 units focused on project-based learning about the Southern California juvenile justice system, and getting to know the community organizations and government agencies that work with the juvenile population.  The curriculum offers a 360-degree view of all aspects of the system, including the youth most susceptible to gangs and a greater understanding of the carceral system as a whole. 

Community organizations in Los Angeles who work in the juvenile justice space are routinely invited to present to students, including Homeboy Industries, the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development and LA Youth Uprising. In fact, it was in one of her classes that Birkenfeld first encountered her future employer, Neutral Ground, an organization that provides restorative practices, violence prevention and intervention support for youth in Orange County. Through her position with Neutral Ground as an Operations Manager and Restorative Practice and Intervention Specialist, Birkenfeld was able to gain hands-on experience working with system-impacted youth. 

Hernandez says this experiential, hands-on learning is by design.

“The minor helps students identify key intractable problems that can be interrupted,” Hernandez said. “Students start to discover some of the challenges faced, the policies that are exacerbating them and dig deeper. Partnering with the community promotes a richer, more in-depth view and their final projects help them become agents of change presenting solutions.”

For a group capstone project, Birkenfeld and her classmates worked with a senior lawyer in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on the concept of developing a new juvenile justice reentry program. The capstone made recommendations, based on their findings, to implement restorative justice principles for transitional-age youth being tried for serious crimes.

“Youth justice is in the social work ethos,” Hernandez said. “We look for injustice and are willing to step into that gap to create solutions. We humanize rather than pathologize the population and we focus on safety and health, not criminality.”

Learning from policymakers and frontline justice professionals

A benefit for students in the Social Work and Juvenile Justice minor is exclusive opportunities to learn from those on the frontlines of juvenile justice and its reform. 

Congressman Tony Cárdenas, who represents California’s 29th district spanning the San Fernando Valley and is a nationally recognized leader in the juvenile justice reform movement, is one such figure who has participated in virtual discussions with students in the minor. Throughout his 28-year career in public service at the city, state and federal levels, Cárdenas has made juvenile justice reform his signature issue. He has championed the most vulnerable populations, youth and community members who are most susceptible to gangs, violence and the carceral system and attempted to create equitable treatment for all people. 

In a recent presentation to students, Cárdenas shared his experiences in juvenile justice policy reform and then fielded a 45-minute question and answer session with students who asked detailed questions about current policy reform and the challenges to implementing them.  Cárdenas also noted that USC is providing an important and unique opportunity for its students through this undergraduate minor. 

“Courses [like this] are critical to better supporting our system-impacted youth and, just a few years ago, they didn't exist,” Cárdenas said. “Giving students access to firsthand knowledge from those on the frontlines of juvenile justice reform will empower and equip the next generation of leaders with the tools to create meaningful change, and help ensure a fairer future for all young people.”

Liovardo Ochoa, DSW ‘20, MSW ’11, has served as an adjunct faculty member, guest lecturer and mentor for the Social Work and Juvenile Justice minor. Spending 16 years with the Los Angeles Probation Department, predominantly working with adolescents and youth impacted by system involvement, he has seen the juvenile justice system from every angle. He grew up in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles surrounded by friends and family who became involved in the carceral system. In fact, it was his brother’s parole officer who suggested that Ochoa would make a caring and effective impact in probation. 

Ochoa finds that the students he teaches in the minor are engaged and not afraid to ask challenging questions. 

“They are very interested in the nontraditional role of social work and the range of settings,” Ochoa said. “They ask me how I can be a peace officer in this kind of paramilitary organization and the difficulties of functioning as a social worker in that setting. And they are right, it is hard. But I also explain to them the value and necessity of having that lens inside the system.” 

Ochoa points to his social work training as the invaluable variable to his work as a probation officer. He notes that people often go into the probation field with the best intentions — based on their own lived experience with the carceral system or that of a relative — but do not necessarily have the education or skills to be effective at providing help. 

“The social work lens really helps you see clients differently and gives you the capabilities to work with these populations and impact change in their lives,” Ochoa said. “There are a lot of forces at play that contribute to the situations in which young individuals find themselves. Social work provides the knowledge, understanding and training to not only help the individual, but also point out and help shape policy within the system to bring about change.”

Systems involvement an extension of adverse childhood experiences 

Analysis of the dynamics leading up to youth becoming involved with the justice system show a continuum that often begins with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and extends into adulthood, leading to further incarceration. In a study conducted by the Children’s Data Network at USC Social Work, about two-thirds of all young people with a juvenile probation petition also had child protective services involvement, significantly higher than previously estimated. 

Orlando Ambriz grew up in an area in Southern California that he describes as “a place that not even the police would go.” His neighborhood was so bad that it has since been torn down. Surrounded by gang violence and drugs, Ambriz spent time in a children’s home as a result of his ACEs. Many of the people he grew up with went to prison. 

Ambriz saw his only path out as joining the military, and he served 20 years in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army with multiple combat tours. Ambriz thought he had left his childhood behind when he joined the military, but came to discover through his studies in the Social Work and Juvenile Justice minor that his ACEs were still present. When combined with his combat experiences, they formed the foundation of his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

“I now know that my experiences in the military were exacerbated by my trauma from growing up,” Ambriz said. “My childhood experiences didn’t help with the healing process because I didn’t know how to heal. The only way I knew how to heal was by causing more damage.”

For Ambriz, who added the minor to his psychology major as a USC undergraduate, the curriculum of the minor did not expose him to a new population, as the communities he studied mirror his personal experience. However, the information and tools presented provided him with a new perspective on the dynamics present within his childhood community, and challenged him to think differently about those with whom he grew up. 

“It enabled me to reflect and realize how I could have supported some of my friends that engaged in crime and went on to prison,” Ambriz said. “Now, when I see youth that are impacted, I try to get closer and let them know I understand.” 

Ambriz says he would recommend the Social Work and Juvenile Justice minor to anyone interested in systems change or improving the lives of youth in underserved communities, regardless of whether or not they want to pursue the social work profession. 

“They will learn how youth are being impacted daily, not just by one system but by the entire biopsychosocial system,” Ambriz said. “The program gives you insight on how to impact people now. Not four years from now, not eight years from now, but right now.”