Blog: Juvenile Justice Reform

When casual readers of the news media search for stories about juvenile crime and justice today, they find a lot of good news. Other than the perennial media coverage of individual crimes and victimization, an online search about juvenile justice today generates dozens of stories about states uncovering abuses in their youth corrections systems, reducing their rates of juvenile incarceration and increasing their reliance on community-based programs for young offenders.
Many of these stories refer to the ongoing decline in crime and violence as possible proof that these changes in policy and practice are improving public safety. But, a prudent reader will stop to ask about the direction of causality in these explanations. Are we reducing crime by limiting the use of incarceration, or is incarceration down because crime is down? The question is more than a topic for academic study. We need to consider our answer carefully if we hope to sustain these recent improvements over the long term.
The number of juvenile offenders being held in secure correctional institutions has been falling nationwide. Advocates in the juvenile justice field welcome this reform because reductions in the use of secure confinement allow state and local jurisdictions to intervene with young offenders in their own homes and communities, which is less costly and can be more effective than incarceration in reducing recidivism and preventing crime.
My colleague Douglas Evans and I recently reviewed the most prominent juvenile correctional reform models from the past 40 years, and we concluded that some models of reform were likely to be more sustainable than others. Specifically, we recommended the "realignment" approach now being implemented in California and those established in Wayne County (Detroit), Michigan since 2000.

Good news from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). In their recently released Juvenile Arrests 2009 bulletin (the latest year data is available), OJJDP analysts found that in 2009, youth arrests for violent crime reached the lowest level in 20 years.

From the news release:

According to the 2009 data, U.S. law enforcement agencies made an estimated 1.9 million arrests of persons younger than 18 years old, nine percent fewer than in 2008. Between 2008 and 2009, there were declines in nearly every offense category. The number of juvenile arrests for Violent Crime Index offenses--murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault--decreased ten percent from 2008, reaching its lowest level since the early 1990s.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• California counties to pay the state $125,000 to house juvenile offenders
  California Governor Jerry Brown announced that the state has to pull the trigger on a series of mid-year budget cuts due to low tax revenues. One of those reductions shaves $67 million from the state’s juvenile justice budget. The cut will force counties to foot the bill for Juvenile Justice wards in state custody, at a cost of $125,000 per youth. Alameda County could be put in a $6.2 million bind.
• Kentucky looks for better way to help young offenders
  Kentucky officials are looking for better ways to deal with youth who commit noncriminal offenses such as skipping school or running away. Research shows that detaining status offenders is the least effective and most expensive option. State leaders admit the system needs improvement.
• Oregon will stop holding juvenile offenders in adult prison
  After federal auditors questioned the practice, Oregon has stopped temporarily holding youth in adult prisons. The Partnership for Safety and Justice, which works on criminal justice issues, won legislation in the 2011 session to encourage local authorities to hold youth in juvenile facilities while they await trial.
• New Report: Generic anti-bullying classes found to be ineffective
  OJJDP has issued a report in which bullying in schools is examined and recommendations are made for the best ways schools can provide support to bullying victims. The study found generic curriculum is an ineffective substitute for student-focused engagement strategies.
• Ohio Courts use internet for greater connectivity
  Ohio’s Coshocton County’s Common Pleas Court, Juvenile and Probate Court and Municipal Court are using the internet to share information more easily with the public and other courts. The Common Pleas Court launched a searchable database for the public that features basic information on open and closed cases with the court.
• South Carolina law enforcement officers complete DJJ gang, violence prevention training
  Recognizing that many kids face significant pressure to join a gang, the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice has partnered with the Gang Resistance Education and Training program in multiple communities across the state to bring the curriculum to local elementary and middle school youth.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• New government program aims to protect children from accidental drug overdoses
  A new government program aims to protect young children from accidental drug overdoses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the “Up and Away and Out of Sight” program, to teach parents how to keep medications out of the hands of young children.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• South Carolina County Sheriff investigator makes a difference in kids’ lives
  Richland County sheriff investigator Cassie Radford is working hard to get troubled kids the services they need and to keep them out of jail. The grant that funds Radford's position is in its third year and ends Sept. 30. Richland County prosecutors and judges hope Sheriff Leon Lott finds a way to keep Radford in her position.
• Missouri juvenile office to use electronic monitoring
  The expense of sending Linn County’s juvenile offenders elsewhere, coupled with the strict criteria that must be met to detain a juvenile, has prompted the Linn County Juvenile Office to obtain electronic monitoring equipment. Without a juvenile detention center of its own, the Linn County Juvenile Office has been forced to pay the expense of transporting offenders as well as the cost for a bed in Kirksville’s Bruce Normile Juvenile Justice Center.
• New goal for Illinois juvenile center: Clear it out
  Cook County’s Board President is advocating a new approach for the county’s juvenile justice system: empty the juvenile detention facility by putting children in group homes, monitored home confinement and other community-based programs where advocates say young people have better opportunities for counseling, job training and other life-skill instruction.
• Kentucky launches pilot program to decrease juvenile detentions
  Henderson schools, law enforcement and court officials joined forces with the state to examine why so many teens were being incarcerated. They came up with a pilot program to combat the issue. It includes asking schools to deal with small offenses, instituting a mentor program and encouraging teachers and school officials to meet to review statistics on disciplinary action.
• Washington, DC’s juvenile justice system sees real change
  As part of sweeping reforms, DC’s Oak Hill was closed in 2009 and replaced by a smaller and dramatically different facility named New Beginnings Youth Development Center. Youth Radio interviewed DC Lawyers for Youth executive director Daniel Okonkwo about Oak Hill’s impact on DC’s juvenile justice system.
• Wisconsin critics: Stop treating 17-year-olds as adults
  Wisconsin is one of 13 states that automatically place 17-year-olds in the adult criminal justice system. In the past few years, almost one-third of states have passed laws to keep more young offenders in the juvenile justice system. Now officials and families are calling on the state to place 17-year-olds in juvenile facilities, mainly for their own safety.
• Benton County’s juvenile center nearly finished
  Arkansas’ Benton County's Juvenile Justice Center is nearly complete, with part of the $6 million complex scheduled to open in January. The new facility is twice as large as the current one and will include classrooms and a courtroom in addition to holding cells.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Two key questions are focus of new teen alcohol screener for pediatricians
  A new alcohol screening tool that focuses on two key questions is designed to help pediatricians spot children and adolescents at risk for alcohol-related problems. The doctor asks about the patient’s own drinking, as well as his or her friends’ alcohol use.

Nearly one in three youth will be arrested for a non-traffic offense by the time they are 23 years old. 
This startling statistic comes from a new report published today in Pediatrics. According to Robert Brame, a criminologist at UNC-Charlotte and principal author of the study, "arrest is a pretty common experience."
This analysis was last done in the 1960s, when researchers found that there were 100 inmates per 100,000 people in the population. Today's study found that there are now 500 inmates per 100,000 people. Researchers suggested that rates increased due to a more aggressive policy for truancy/vandalism/underage drinking/shoplifting and because transition from adolescence to adulthood has become a longer process. 
Of particular note is the authors' decision to publish the study in a medical journal instead of a journal focused on criminologists. The researchers believe that pediatricians have a role preventing violent or unsafe behaviors in their at-risk patients, explained Prof. Brame in a HealthDay article.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Mississippi officials say more youth rehab facilities are needed
  Government officials in Mississippi say that a growing number of youth arrested for crimes are becoming repeat offenders because rehabilitation is not available.
• Iowa Governor visits state’s largest child welfare, juvenile justice and behavioral health agencies
  Governor Terry Branstad is interested in the concept of providing children and families with treatment, utilizing a long-term, comprehensive approach, rather than the standard short-term solution.
• Detroit tackles dropout crisis by engaging students and parents
  Over the next 18 months, PBS NewsHour is examining the consequences of, and solutions for, one of this country's most pressing education issues.
• Wyoming’s Natrona County earns recognition for juvenile justice progress
  The State Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice and Gov. Matt Mead's office honored Natrona county officials for developing a system that offers alternatives to detention for low-risk offenders, cutting its use of secure detention for status offenses like underage drinking by 99%.
• Feds: Florida’s youth prisons are “dangerous”
  Florida’s youth-corrections system is so poorly administered and conditions are so severe that the U.S. Department of Justice said that they violate the Constitution.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Massachusetts theatre company receives federal grant to work with youth
  The Salem Theatre Company was recently awarded a grant from the Healthy People 2020 Community Innovations Project, a program of the US Department of Health and Human Services, to work with local youth. They plan to create three short plays focused on healthy choices with regards to nutrition, substance abuse and youth violence.

The oldest kids in the system when H. Ted Rubin was a Colorado juvenile judge are now 57 years old. But Rubin has never left the field; he has been a researcher, advocate, and most notably, reporter and author since he left the bench in 1971.
His sixth book, “Juvenile Justice: Policies, Practices, and Programs Volume II,” was just released by Civic Research Institute, for whom Rubin also serves as a regular contributor to the excellent Juvenile Justice Update.
The tome spoons out updates for readers on all aspects of juvenile justice from the front door of the system to deep-end placements, mixing citation of news and research with the author’s opinions on issues and trends. It is part reference and part editorial, a book only a guy with Rubin’s breadth of experience could write with credibility.
Youth Today sat down with Rubin, who was in Washington, D.C. for the annual conference of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change initiative.
Youth Today: The first volume of “Policies Practices, and Programs” was written in 2003. What would say are the biggest changes to the juvenile justice landscape since you wrote it?
H. Ted Rubin: We’re in a really good time of making great progress when it comes to dealing with kids who break a law, or who cause problems at school. There’s a long way to go.”
There are two foundations, MacArthur and Casey, that have helped that along sizably.
YT: Is there any aspect in which you feel the field has regressed since your first volume?
HTR: The termination of people working with kids in the system and in private nonprofits. And where we’ve not made nearly enough headway is DMC [disproportionate minority contact]. That’s really a purpose of Casey and MacArthur. And it’s Congress that said states have to evaluate DMC and implement a plan.
YT: Do you view DMC as a reason to solve problems or a problem to solve?
HTR: “DMC is a separate thing. It’s not just a police function, but that’s some of it. [Columbia University researcher] Jeff Fagan talks about changing the reward structure of police so that they could be rewarded for steering a kid to the Boys & Girls Club. Right now, it’s making arrests. And the easiest arrests are minority youths, and schools further that.”

Several news stories across the United States last month focused on the alarming increase in the number of students arrested inside public schools—and for alarmingly minor behavior.
The Justice Policy Institute recently released a large study on the use of police officers in schools and the resulting arrest rates of students. The report discusses how reports of victimization and bullying have no correlation, positive or negative, with the presence of police officers in schools.
Further, schools with in-house police officers are funneling more kids into the juvenile justice system. A study of such schools found that five times as many students were arrested for disorderly conduct at those schools, even when controlling for economic factors.
Arresting kids for minor misbehavior that would more appropriately be addressed with standard school and parental discipline imposes a high cost on the juvenile justice system, and states are taking notice.

Youth in the juvenile justice system are at high-risk for physical, mental and developmental health issues according to a new policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Adolescence. Despite this, many youths don’t receive the level of health care they need, either in the system or when they get out. The report represents the first update in 10 years to the Health Care for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System.
Nationwide 11 million juveniles were arrested in 2008, according to the report. And while not all arrested youth are placed in some form of detention (either short- or long-term) the median stay in custody in 2006 was 65 days. Eighty percent remained in detention for at least 30 days and 57 percent for at least 90 days. All of those youths require healthcare of some kind.
“We wanted to advocate for these youth to have the same level and standards of care as non-incarcerated youth in the community,” the report’s lead author, Dr. Paula Braverman, Director of Community Programs at the Cincinatti Children’s Hospital Medical Center said in an email. She said the Committee on Adolescence also “outlined specific recommendations which included the training and skill of the health care providers.”
Currently, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) publishes standards for care in juvenile facilities. At a minimum, the NCCHC says, youth should be screened by health care professionals immediately upon arriving at an intake facility to check for contagious conditions, urgent health needs and suicidal thoughts. Within seven days of intake, youth should be given a hands-on, comprehensive health examination by a doctor. Girls and boys are tested for sexually transmitted diseases and vaccinations are updated. A further mental health screening must be performed within 14 days. A dental examination must be performed within seven days.