Carrie Johnson
The National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC) has announced that Carrie Johnson will be recognized with the inaugural Norman Dorsen Award. The award is in honor of the recently-deceased civil rights attorney, Norman Dorsen, who successfully argued the U.S. Supreme Court case In re Gault. This landmark decision by the court held that children in juvenile court have many of the constitutional protections that adults receive in criminal court, including the right to counsel. Ms. Johnson is a justice correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR), covering justice, law enforcement and legal affairs news. Her reporting has covered many important events and aspects of the juvenile justice system. In addition to her long form reporting, Johnson regularly contributes to NPR’s programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered. She also moderates and appears on legal panels for the American Bar Association, the American Constitution Society and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Johnson’s career in journalism began right after she graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996. Her first job was as a staff reporter for Legal Times, a position in which she spent four years before moving on to a staff writing position at the Washington Post. She would work there for 10 years until she left for her current position as a justice correspondent at NPR in early 2010. While at NPR, her work has been recognized with awards from the Society for Professional Journalists and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. She was also a finalist for the Loeb award for financial journalism and for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news for team coverage of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. Recently, Johnson wrote pieces highlighting the still-present problem of juveniles lacking proper access to counsel, despite the In re Gault decision taking place in 1967. This, along with her other juvenile justice reporting over her long career, has earned her the recognition of being awarded the inaugural Norman Dorsen Award. Carrie Johnson will accept the award from the NJDC at its event, The Story of Justice, on May 15, 2018.
