Judge Jay Blitzman (Retired) served as the First Justice of the Massachusetts Middlesex County Juvenile Court Division. Prior to his twenty-four year judicial career he was a public defender and was the first director of the Roxbury Youth Advocacy Project, a multi-disciplinary legal services unit which was the basis for creating a state wide public defender division. Jay was a co-founder of the Massachusetts Citizens for Juvenile Justice (CfJJ), and our Our RJ, a community based diversionary restorative justice initiative. Jay serves on the advisory boards of CfJJ and UTEC, a youth and emerging adult program in Lowell, MA. He is a member of the American Bar Association BA Youth At Risk Commission and the 2019 recipient of the ABA Livingston Hall Juvenile Justice Award and was the first person to receive the Massachusetts Bar Association Juvenile and Child Justice Welfare Award. Jay has served a wide array of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Committees and was a designated judicial mentor. He publishes and presents extensively on issues which include racial and ethnic equity, juvenile and criminal systemic reform and adolescent development. He holds teaching positions at Harvard Law School (Trial Advocacy), Northeastern University School of Law (Juvenile Law), and Boston College Law School (Cradle to Prison Pipeline). Jay is also a faculty member of the Center for Law Brain Behavior (CLBB) at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, specializing in juvenile justice.
