Juvenile Justice & Institutional Abuse Expert

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Brett Peterson provides expert testimony and litigation support regarding juvenile justice operations, facility conditions, and institutional accountability. Drawing on his experience as a licensed attorney and former state agency director, he consults on cases involving conditions of confinement, use of force, deliberate indifference, and institutional abuse in juvenile facilities, residential treatment centers, and child welfare settings. Executive Leadership & System Operation: Mr. Peterson formerly served as the Director of the Utah Division of Juvenile Justice and Youth Services. In this role, he managed a $100 million budget and a statewide continuum of care that included early intervention, child welfare shelters, detention, residential treatment, long-term secure settings, and parole. Overseeing an agency of over 900 employees, he restructured staffing models and established internal investigatory frameworks to monitor staff accountability, incident reporting, and regulatory compliance. Prior to this, he served as the Director of the Utah Office of Licensing, leading the regulatory agency responsible for human services providers, background screening, and critical incident investigations. Additionally, Mr. Peterson served as the Senior Advisor to the Utah Department of Corrections and the Department of Health and Human Services, where he was tasked with the transition of Correctional Health services from Corrections to HHS. Subject Matter Expertise & Monitoring: Mr. Peterson provides objective analysis of operational standards within youth-serving facilities. He currently serves as a Court-Appointed Deputy Monitor for Los Angeles County Juvenile Facilities and acts as a subject matter expert for the USDOJ, evaluating facility conditions, critical incident responses, and use of force protocols. His experience in sexual assault prevention includes authoring the Sexual Assault and Victimization Elimination (SAVE) regulations for the Utah juvenile system and serving on the PREA committee for the Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators. Litigation Support & Specialized Consulting: As the Principal of Justice Path Advisors, Mr. Peterson utilizes his executive experience to evaluate institutional liability, regulatory compliance, and behavioral management practices. He analyzes critical incidents in state-run juvenile halls, foster care placements, private residential treatment centers, and wilderness programs. His systemic expertise covers complex liability issues including negligent placement, historical sexual abuse claims, and deficiencies in correctional education and IDEA compliance—having previously established statewide vocational and higher education programs for youth in secure settings. His expert testimony experience includes serving as a trial witness and expert witness, as well as providing testimony before the Utah Legislature, the Virginia Commission on Youth, and the United States Congress. Areas of Expertise: His specific areas of evaluation include conditions of confinement (assessing facility conditions, standard of care, and safety protocols); use of force and restraint (evaluating physical interventions, room confinement, and isolation); institutional abuse and PREA (reviewing historical sexual abuse, staff misconduct, and failure to protect); placement and education (analyzing negligent placement, systems integration, and educational programming in custody); and facility operations and licensing (evaluating behavior management, staffing models, state licensing compliance, and internal investigations). He offers this expertise across residential treatment, child welfare, and juvenile justice settings