For his tireless efforts and significant impact in helping to transform systems to better meet the needs of its most vulnerable, YAP presents Paul DeMuro with the “Last One Over the Wall Award."

Like YAP’s founder Tom Jeffers, Paul has been reforming systems since he graduated college from Ohio State University where he met Dr. Jerry Miller. He began his work like Tom with Dr. Miller in Massachusetts closing down the juvenile training schools, and moved on to affect system reform in Chicago and in Pennsylvania before becoming Vice-President of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. He continues his advocacy and system reform efforts even now as a Senior Consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the National Juvenile Detention Association.

Paul has been involved in a number of the Foundation's child welfare and juvenile justice initiatives. He’s held appointments as a Federal Court Monitor for child welfare and juvenile justice consent decrees in Oklahoma and in Florida. He currently is the Federal Court Monitor in a juvenile detention case in New Orleans. He often helps resolve (mediate) pending court litigation and he has helped juvenile justice and child welfare jurisdictions settle long-standing litigation.

Paul regularly consults with a variety of county, state and federal agencies regarding improving services for court related youths. He is an expert on conditions of confinement in secure facilities and has often been retained by the United States Justice Department, Civil Rights Division. He also has substantial experience developing quality community-based alternatives to residential care for child welfare and juvenile justice children and youth. He’s a published author, a proud husband, father and grandfather, and a great friend to YAP.