Blog: Juvenile Justice Reform

The devil is always in the details and sometimes details are like trying to put lipstick on a pig. The recidivism rate for Georgia juveniles is a case in point.
One-in-two juveniles leave the system and do not return within three years. But one-in-two are back within three years, usually because of a new crime, violation of a court order or a probation offense. There is a cash cost for that level of failure and there also is a human cost.
When the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform convened this summer it heard primarily generalities about juvenile justice from expert analysts. When the Council met this week it was taken into the weeds, deeper into data, and some members had their eyes opened a bit wider.
“The question is what do we do from here and how do we improve the recidivism rate,” said Hall County Superior Court Judge Jason Deal. “The recidivism rate is around 50 percent and that’s not acceptable.” State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver described the one-in-two recidivism rate as “very scary” and Douglas County District Attorney David McDade asked, “Are we spending our dollars in a way that protects public safety? That’s the whole driver for me.”

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Illinois to Improve Conditions at Youth Prisons (St. Louis CBS Local)
  Illinois is promising to improve safety at its youth prisons and offer inmates better educational and mental health services. The Department of Juvenile Justice agreed to the improvements after the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois threatened to sue.
• U.S. Families Fret at Juvenile Justice System in Crisis (The Raw Story)
  Relatives of jailed young Americans called Tuesday for reform of a juvenile justice system they say fails to help young people and is biased against youth of color. “More than two million children are arrested every year in the United States and the numbers continue to rise, despite the decreasing incidence of true criminal offenses,” according to the study released by the Justice for Families program at the research organization DataCenter.
• Imprisoned Teens Found More Likely to Re-offend (Jacksonville.com)
  A new report shows that children and teenagers locked up for breaking the law have become 6 percent more likely to commit another crime than they were in 2003. The figures come from a study conducted by the Pew Center on the States at the request of a commission appointed to propose an overhaul to the juvenile-justice system in Georgia.
• GIVING BACK - Troubled Youths get Chance to Serve Community through DJJ Initiative (TheTandD.com)
  A group of local youths spent Friday morning working with officers at the Orangeburg County, SC Department of Juvenile Justice as part of Restoring Carolina Through Youth Service. The program is a statewide initiative that gives young people who have made poor choices an opportunity to give back through community service.
• Juvenile Court Records can Follow Kids to College (The Morning Call)
  Juvenile court records could begin following youthful offenders to college after a state appeals court decision in the child pornography case of a Whitehall Township teen. The Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld a Lehigh County judge's decision to notify the boy's university that he had admitted looking at and trading child pornography over the Internet.
• Michael Griffiths: The TT Interview (The Texas Tribune)
  Michael Griffiths never really retired after 15 years as head of juvenile services for the Dallas County Juvenile Department. He taught online courses at his alma mater, Sam Houston State University, and consulted on juvenile issues, and he even handed out programs at Texas Rangers games. On Monday, Griffiths will become the new executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

The Illinois Supreme Court issued a strongly worded endorsement this week for zealous lawyering for kids—the same kind of zealous lawyering that adults routinely expect for themselves. In In re Austin M., Austin M. successfully appealed his delinquency adjudication, convincing a majority of the Illinois Supreme Court that a lawyer cannot simultaneously assert and defend his juvenile client's innocence and also claim to be seeking the truth "the same as the court and the same as the prosecutor." Characterizing this dual mission as "hybrid representation," the Court held that a lawyer cannot serve as both defense counsel and a guardian ad litem on behalf of a child charged with delinquency.
Since the time that Juvenile Law Center opened its doors, we have worked to prevent lawyers from betraying their young clients. While this is important for all defendants, it is particularly so for youth in whom we want to instill a belief in fairness and the rule of law. These kids must also know that they have an advocate that they can confide in—and that the lawyer won't breach confidentiality in the lawyer-client relationship. They must have a lawyer they can return to when they have complaints about the system—this won't happen if they perceive the lawyer as just another arm of the system. A society that has granted children constitutional rights should be concerned when lawyers themselves undermine those rights.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Cops Fan Out To Schools (New Haven Independent)
  For three days last week cops all over New Haven, CT descended on every school for the beginning of the academic year. It was a new push to connect cops with kids—one that Assistant Chief Luiz Casanova pledges to make a year-round citywide campaign.
• New Juvenile Justice Program Shows Early Promise (Statesman.com)
  Texas officials call them the worst of the worst. But at first glance, the eight teenage boys slouched at stainless steel tables, in gray polo shirts and khaki pants, might pass for a bunch of sullen high-schoolers almost anywhere in Texas. The youths are the focal point of an initiative by state officials to curb violence inside Texas' state-run youth lockups.
• Sweet Tweet: Keri Hilson Inspires Girls at Juvenile Justice Center (act.MTV.com)
  Keri Hilson wants to make a difference! We all remember when she got involved with AIDS Walk New York for the MTV Staying Alive Foundation team, and now Keri has Tweeted about her latest do-gooder act. 
• From Detention Cells to the Stage (CNN.com)
  Over the past decade, the Synchronicity theater group has returned to Georgia juvenile detention centers several times a year to help girls write plays about drug addiction, rape, abusive parents and cheating boyfriends, but also plays about finding love and making amends.
• After Supreme Court Ruling, PA Grapples With Juvenile-Lifer Questions (TheCrimeReport.org)
  With more juvenile lifers in prison than any other state, Pennsylvania lawmakers are taking the first steps to consider what changes are needed in state law now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down laws that require juveniles convicted of homicide to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, reports the Scranton Times-Tribune.

As many in the juvenile justice community sadly know, a focus on diagnosing and treating mental health and substance abuse problems in detained juveniles developed relatively late nationally. This is particularly true in the State of Idaho, which did not have systematic, routine mental health and substance abuse screening occurring in its 12 juvenile detention centers (JDCs) until 2008. Since the inception of the Clinical Services Program (CSP), a collaborative effort funded by the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Idaho has made dramatic strides in screening for mental health and substance abuse problems in juveniles entering its JDCs, and recommending and (and sometimes coordinating) treatment for these juveniles upon their return to their communities.
Starting in 2008, my colleagues and I at Boise State University’s Center for Health Policy have performed annual, multimodal assessments of the CSP. One of the main components of our evaluation has involved documenting the prevalence of mental health and substance abuse problems. What we’ve found is that juveniles entering Idaho’s JDCs should be considered to have at least one of these types of problems unless demonstrated otherwise; in other words, having a mental health or substance abuse problem, or both types of problems, is the rule rather than the exception to it.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• [OPINION] With Volunteers' Help, Teens at Halfway House will Continue to Soar (Statesman.com)
  "The Texas Juvenile Justice Department (formerly the Texas Youth Commission) has been embroiled in difficult discussions with legislators and community leaders about policy, politics and performance for as long as most of us can remember. But what people like you and I often forget, or never think about, is that there are kids at stake."
• Clark County Juvenile Justice System Processing Fewer Teens (OregonLive.com)
  The number of teenagers entering Clark County's juvenile justice system has dropped by half in the last five years, leading those involved in the system to wonder why. In 2007, schools, police and other agencies referred to the county justice system a total of 3,575 juveniles who had committed misdemeanor and felony offenses. So far this year, the number is 1,584.
• A Roadmap to the Future of Juvenile Justice (NewAmericaMedia.org)
  Juvenile justice is transforming throughout America. Though there is a long road ahead to reform these systems into effective, rehabilitative programs that no longer make children worse, there is great promise in jurisdictions across the country, that are changing how they work with youth.
• Juveniles Entitled to Hearing Before Being Moved to State Prison, N.J. Court Panel Rules (NJ.com)
  Unruly juveniles housed at any of New Jersey's facilities for young offenders are entitled to a hearing before they're transferred to a state prison, a state appeals court panel ruled today. Teens under the jurisdiction of the state Juvenile Justice Commission need more than same-day notice of the transfer, the court said.
• Register Wants to Hear your Juvenile Justice Experiences (DesMoinesRegister.com)
  According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there were arrests of nearly 1.3 million people under age 18 in the United States in 2010. Despite public perception of teens being especially dangerous, less than 1 percent of the arrests were for murder, manslaughter or forcible rape.
• Summer Program Teaches Teens Basics of Farm Work (Missoulian.com)
  The Youth Harvest project is run in partnership with Missoula’s Youth Drug Court, Human Resource Council and Willard School. Some of the Youth Harvest members are referred through court, others through their teachers or counselors. All must apply and interview for the job.

I am currently in the process of preparing this year’s syllabus for the companion course that I teach with the Juvenile Justice Clinic entitled, “The Criminal Lawyering Process.” It is designed to introduce clinic students to North Carolina juvenile court practice and procedure as well as to the issues commonly confronted by juvenile defenders.
One of the most difficult concepts for students (and many lawyers) to grasp is that of the role of the juvenile defender, as we are bound to represent what the client herself articulates as her goals and preferences, rather than being guided by our own view of what is in the youth’s “best interests.” A related concept that students often find challenging is the limited role of the child’s parents during the course of representation; it is the client and not her parents who ultimately makes the critical decisions in the case, including whether to admit or have an adjudicatory hearing and whether or not to testify. Parents of juveniles sometimes balk at this ethical rule, as they are accustomed to serving as the ultimate decision-maker for their son or daughter in nearly every other setting.

A report released this month takes an in-depth look at how girls are represented in North Carolina's juvenile justice system, how the numbers have shifted over the years and why females are the fastest growing segment of the juvenile justice system despite the overall decrease in juvenile crime. Representing Girls In the Juvenile Justice System, released by the North Carolina Office of the Juvenile Defender, looks at not only the characteristics and risk factors of girls in the juvenile justice system, but also offers several best practices to best serve the unique issues this population faces.
Since the early 1990s, due to policy changes, the number of girls in the juvenile justice system has been on the rise. Basically, the increased amount of girls in the juvenile justice system can be credited to the “relabeling of girls’ family conflicts as violent offenses, shifting police practices concerning domestic violence, processing of misdemeanor cases in a gender-biased manner and a misunderstanding of girls’ developmental issues,” according to the report.

Beyond Scared Straight premieres its 3rd season tonight. While the show aims to scare troubled teens away from bad behavior, research has shown it's ineffective and damaging to kids. In fact, Scared Straight programs actually INCREASE the likelihood that teens will reoffend.

We've written quite a bit on (Beyond)Scared Straight in the past: