25 Laws & Rights Every Juvenile Must Know (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798996498925)

On April 26, 2004, at 15 years old, Keenan Hudson walked into the Roundhouse - Philadelphia's homicide unit - and turned himself in. He had a lawyer. He had twenty family members in the room. He had people who loved him. And he still had no idea what was happening to him. He did not know what his charges meant. He did not know what rights belonged to him. He did not know that the list of six charges filed against him did not mean he had committed six crimes - it meant prosecutors were applying maximum pressure to force a plea. Nobody put the right information in his hands. Nobody told him the truth about what he was walking into.

He spent nearly fifteen years in the Pennsylvania state prison system. He came home in 2016 and has spent every year since fighting to make sure no young person ever faces that system as unprepared as he did.

25 Laws & Rights Every Juvenile Must Know is the book Keenan Hudson wishes someone had given him at fifteen. Written in plain language at a seventh-grade reading level, it walks young people and their families through twenty-five constitutional and Pennsylvania state laws - one dedicated chapter per law - covering every stage of the juvenile justice process from a police encounter on the street through incarceration and beyond.

Part One covers the street: the right to remain silent, the right against unreasonable searches, the right to know whether you are being detained, the right against excessive force, the right to have a parent present before any questioning begins, and the laws governing when a juvenile must identify themselves. Part Two covers the police station: the right to be told why you were arrested, the absolute right to an attorney including a free one, Miranda rights and what happens when they are violated, the right to a phone call and exactly what to say on it, the right to be processed as a juvenile rather than an adult, what certification to adult court truly means, and the right to be held separately from adult inmates under federal law. Part Three covers the courtroom: the right to a prompt hearing, the right to know every charge filed and how to fight charge stacking, the right to bail or release, the constitutional protection against double jeopardy, the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses, and the right not to testify against yourself. Part Four covers incarceration: the right against cruel and unusual punishment, the right to education and IEP implementation inside a facility, the right to medical and mental health care, the right to religious practice, the right to access the law library, and the right to file grievances without retaliation.

Every chapter includes the actual legal citation, a plain-language explanation, a real-life scenario featuring one of three recurring characters - Marcus, Jaylen, and Bianca - showing the law in action, a dedicated section on the most common and costly mistakes .

Beyond the twenty-five chapters, the book includes four essential special sections. The charge stacking section explains how prosecutors file multiple charges from a single incident to create overwhelming pressure toward a plea deal, and provides the exact legal motions including the motion for nolle prosequi to challenge and remove charges that cannot be proven. The certification section provides a full comparison of juvenile versus adult court outcomes, the eight specific factors Pennsylvania judges must weigh at a certification hearing, and the evidence that wins. The felony murder rule section tells the truth about a law that sent Keenan Hudson himself to prison at fifteen for a killing he did not commit - and documents the ongoing fight for change affecting over four hundred individuals at SCI Phoenix alone who became newly eligible for resentencing following the Commonwealth v. Derek Lee ruling. The expungement and record sealing section maps every available pathway in Pennsylvania to clean a record and start over.


Author: Keenan Hudson
ISBN-13: 9798996498925
Publisher: Keenan Hudson
Language: English
Published: 06/07/2026
Pages: 122
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.38lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.26d