Juvenile Justice Reform

The Maine Statistical Analysis Center recently released their 2012 Maine Juvenile Justice Data Book, which presents data and findings of youth involved with the Maine juvenile justice system. The results are encouraging, with arrest rates for both violent and drug offences dropping along with average daily population of youth in detention. Detailed findings can be found below.
Key Findings from the Data Book (emphasis mine)

• From 2001 to 2010, the overall arrest rate of youth in Maine decreased by 26%, from 67 arrests per 1,000 youth to 50.
• Most arrests in Maine are of adults. The proportion of youth arrests to all arrests in Maine dropped from a high of 17% in 2001 to just 12% in 2010, or 1 in every 8.5 arrests. Since 2001, the number of arrests of youth has decreased by 35%, while arrests of adults increased by 2%.
• From 2001 to 2010, arrests of Maine youth for violent offenses decreased by 28%. Violent offenses comprised only 1.7% of all arrests of youth in 2010.
• Arrests of Maine youth for drug offenses decreased by 33% from 2001 to 2010. As a proportion of all arrests of youth in Maine, arrests for drug offenses remained relatively stable, at a rate of 8 to 9% per year.
• The average daily population of Maine youth in detention fell by 37.3% between 2006 and 2011.
• Minority youth in Androscoggin and Cumberland Counties were statistically significantly less likely to be diverted from the juvenile justice system for an offense than white youth between 2005 and 2010.
• Adjudicated youth who were placed in a Maine youth development center recidivated within one year of discharge from DJS supervision at a rate of 33%.

The sixth step of the Reclaiming Futures model is "transition," which highlights the importance of creating opportunities for young people in the community based on teens' unique strengths and interests.
Mentors in Snohomish County, Washington, are connecting with young people through Promising Artists in Recovery, a program created through Reclaiming Futures Snohomish County and the Denney Juvenile Justice Center in Everett, Washington. 
The Everett Herald is celebrating this very compelling photography in print and online. (Photo at right by student Jordyn Brougher.)
 
 
 
 

Earlier this week, CJCJ launched its California juvenile justice interactive map, displaying a plethora of data regarding local youth arrest and confinement practices by county. This is particularly pertinent given that California’s statewide trends are so extraordinary: Youth crime in California is at its lowest level since statewide statistics were first compiled in 1954.

The county-by-county data paint a more nuanced picture of juvenile justice in California. Among its 58 counties, the application of juvenile justice policy is radically varied, and with mixed results.

For example, San Francisco County has the highest youth arrest rate in the state, due primarily to the fact that San Francisco is the only county comprised wholly of a city. Most arrests involve youth of color from the city’s poorest neighborhoods. Despite high rates of violent crime, the county utilizes confinement infrequently, displaying very low levels of state youth correctional commitments and lower than average use of its local custodial facilities; 49% of beds in the county’s two juvenile justice facilities (juvenile hall + camp) were occupied in 2010. Driving this commitment to rehabilitate even the hardest-to-serve youth in the community is a wealth of nonprofit service providers and dedicated local government leadership.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Success in Juvenile Justice Diversions May Influence Treatment of Adult Offenders in Florida (JJIE.org)
  In October, officials in one Florida community announced that its local police force would now have the ability to issue civil citations in lieu of formal arrests for certain crimes. The Leon County, Fla., measure targeting a largely adult-offender base takes many cues from the state’s juvenile justice system, which has seen vast improvements to juvenile crime rates due to lock-up alternatives.
• Rethinking Prison Terms For Juveniles (Courant.com)
  Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and new developments in psychology and brain science are prompting Connecticut to reconsider prison sentences for juveniles. The courts allow for a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders, but juveniles in Connecticut can still receive mandatory sentences of life without parole in adult court.
• Juvenile Justice Reform Priority for State Lawmakers (NBC26.tv)
  Now that the election is over, lawmakers say they have a lot of unfinished business to get back to. Georgia goes back to legislative session in January, but Representative Wayne Howard said the planning starts now. Howard acknowledges that there wasn’t enough funding for juvenile justice reform last year, but that they hope to fit it in the budget this year.
• I-Team: Shackles Coming Off Juveniles in Court (8NewsNow.com)
  For the first time since anyone can remember, juveniles accused of a crime in Clark County, Nevada, are not wearing shackles in court. For years, children have appeared with chains at their hands, waist and feet, a policy that applied to all of those accused, regardless of risk.

 
Evan Elkin, Director, Department of Planning and Government Innovation at the Vera Institute of Justice, discusses the success and longevity of Nassau County Reclaiming Futures, despite the decimation of county and local budgets over the past three years in New York. 
The work goes on because the team pulls togther tightly and reinvents itself around the model. 

A new federally commissioned report led by University of Virginia law professor Richard Bonnie lays out a blueprint to reform the nation's juvenile justice system to better hold youth offenders accountable, prevent recidivism and ensure adolescent offenders are treated fairly.
The report, "Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach," was commissioned by the National Research Council at the request of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. The report's authors argue that the juvenile justice system must be overhauled to incorporate an emerging body of knowledge about adolescent development and effective interventions, which should improve outcomes for young offenders and society as a whole.
"What we're trying to come up with is a juvenile-justice system that has accountability without criminalization," said Bonnie, vice chairman of the Committee on Assessing Juvenile Justice Reform, which produced the report. "It's important that kids be held accountable. But the same tools of accountability that are used for adults are not a good fit for adolescents because they interfere with successful development rather than promoting it."

A recently released exploratory study commissioned by WolfBrown and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute examines the potential for music in teens involved with the juvenile justice system. Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections Program has been providing musical workshops for the past four years for teens in various states of the juvenile justice system, including those in detention and on probation.
The study, “May The Songs I Have Written Speak For Me: An Exploration Of The Potential Of Music In Juvenile Justice,” is broken down into the following sections (via the news release):

• A history of juvenile justice in the United States with an emphasis on the long-standing tension between incarceration and rehabilitation
• An overview of the current movement for reform
• A summary of basic research on adolescent development, with an emphasis on the new brain science that explains why adolescents are prone to risk-taking, thrill-seeking, and emotionally-driven choices, coupled with a discussion of the potential of music to reach and affect adolescents
• A review of research and evaluations from an international set of music programs in both adult and juvenile corrections facilities, with an emphasis on what such programs accomplish and the specific effects they have
• A reflection on the design principles emerging from effective programs
• An examination of the current work in juvenile justice supported by Carnegie Hall and the Administration for Children’s Services in New York, with an emphasis on the issues and choices that are arising as this work enters a second, deeper, and more challenging phase.

Upon entering the courtroom with his defense attorney, the child starts waving at the judge. When the defense attorney asks the child, “What are you doing?” The child replied, “I’m waving my rights.”[1]
Across our country, children are being funneled through the juvenile justice system. The majority of these children have no real understanding of the court processes they are involved in or the legal consequences that may affect not only their juvenile record, but also their lives. Though juvenile courts are designed specifically for children, the language utilized by attorneys and judges is comparable to a foreign language to children that find themselves involved in the juvenile justice system.
Season 1, Episode 6 of the HBO series, The Wire, illustrates the type of legalese utilized in juvenile courts.[2] At a juvenile court hearing, Bodie, a 16-year-old boy, attempts to follow the rapid-fire dialogue that is occurring between his attorneys, the prosecutor, and the judge.[3] The judge and attorneys use terms such as “respondent,” “juvenile,” “delinquent petition,” “commitment hearing,” “assault,” “narcotics,” “transaction,” “remuneration,” “manipulated by traffickers,” and “home monitoring.”[4] He seems to get lost in the flurry of legalese and technical terms. Bodie seems to have no concept of what this dialogue entails, what any of these terms mean in relation to him, or the potential consequences. He appears to leave the juvenile court hearing with no real comprehension or appreciation for the juvenile justice system. In fact, later in the episode, he remarks to Officer Carver and Officer Herc that “the juvenile system in this city is f*#$%@ up.”[5] These are common scenes in most juvenile courts around the country. Though the juvenile courts are supposed to be designed specifically for children, they do not utilize language that is designed for children to understand the legal expectation placed upon them.

A new report, Breaking Rules, Breaking Budgets: Cost of Exclusionary Discipline in 11 Texas School Districts, by nonprofit Texas Appleseed shares the negative impacts of the exclusionary disciplinary methods in Texas schools. The study surveyed 11 school districts to discover the cost-benefit ratio of exclusionary discipline and how it affects students and communities. Exclusionary discipline includes out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, and referrals to alternative education programs which leads to high human and financial costs.
In 2011, the Council of State Governments released a groundbreaking report documenting the negative impacts suspension and expulsion have on students in Texas. With many schools utilizing discretionary sentencing for minor violations, the high costs and negative impacts of exclusionary discipline are hindering the Texas public school system.
Excessive state money is being spent on out-of-school suspensions and school security rather than social work services. With 75% of violations strictly school code violations, the annual cost to educate one student through exclusionary discipline methods is three times the average cost of educating a student in the regular classroom.
The Texas Appleseed report gives the following recommendations to help reduce the human and financial costs of exclusionary discipline: