Juvenile Justice Reform

A new report from the National Center for Juvenile Justice analyzes the 1.5 million delinquency cases processed by juvenile courts in that year. “Juvenile Court Statistics 2009,” closely examines the type of offenses committed, who committed them and how the young people were processed before, during and after their court appearances. In addition, the report looked over juvenile statistics from as far back as 1985 to determine the trends juvenile cases.
The process of the juvenile justice system has many different steps and there are a number of ways that a teen can be processed depending on their circumstances, offense committed and various other factors. All cases need to be referred to the court, usually by law enforcement agencies, and then it is determined if the case will be handled formally or informally and in juvenile or criminal court. In 2009, juvenile courts handled roughly 4,100 cases each day, 30% more than in 1985 and 300% than in 1960.

Earlier this summer, the National Conference of State Legislatures published a report detailing the progress made in the juvenile justice arena at the state and national levels. The report, “Trends in Juvenile Justice State Legislation: 2001-2011,” begins with an brief look into the past:
“A rise in serious juvenile crime in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to state laws that moved away from the traditional emphasis on rehabilitation in the juvenile justice system toward tougher, more punitive treatment of youth, including adult handling.”
Over the past decade, the pendulum has swung the other way, focusing more on rehabilitation rather than punishment with thanks primarily to new research on cognitive development. Via the report:
“Findings by the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice show that adolescent brains do not fully develop until about age 25, and the immature, emotional and impulsive nature characteristic of adolescents makes them more susceptible to committing crimes.”
The report outlines the major milestones and trends at both the state and national level, which are presented chronologically below. Post in the comments if there are any major milestones from your state that are missing from the list below!

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Opinion: A Broken Juvenile Justice System (The Baltimore Sun)
  Youthful offenders at Baltimore Detention Center won't be better off if the state builds a new $70 million juvenile jail; the whole policy of charging minors as adults needs rethinking.
• Times Editorial: Voters buy into Need for New Juvenile-Justice Center (The Seattle Times)
  Voters rightly grasped that this proposal was not about new jail beds, but about a critical investment in a public service. The alternative, sinking an estimated $40 million into repairing the current buildings, was not the answer.
• Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Many Minors May Stay in Prison for Life (ProPublica)
  Under the Supreme Court's ruling, minors can still get life without parole sentences — just not automatically after a conviction; instead a judge will need to decide, taking into account the minor's youth.

The Texas Juvenile Justice Department released an encouraging report detailing the success of their Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Programs (JJAEPs). These programs have been providing education for students expelled from traditional schools since the 1996-1997 school year.
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department found that the JJAEP has been improving over the past several years--test scores are up, costs are down, and behavior has improved. See the list below for details on the report’s major findings (via the report):

In partnership with several juvenile justice advocates around the country, Cathryn Crawford, a national expert in juvenile and criminal justice, has edited a new book entitled "Promise Unfulfilled: Juvenile Justice in America" (IDEA 2012).
Through a combination of original and reprinted articles written by academics, lawyers, and advocates, “Promise Unfulfilled” addresses the problems with designing and implementing effective systems to deal with children in conflict with the law, and it describes various challenges children in the juvenile justice system face and offers suggestions for reform.
The authors include James Bell, Founder and Director of the W. Haywood Burns Institute, who wrote on the over-incarceration of youth of color; Jacqueline Bullard, an appellate defender in Illinois, who wrote on best interest versus expressed interest representation of minors in delinquency court; and Neelum Arya (Barry Law, Campaign for Youth Justice) who wrote on state legislative victories from 2005-2010 in the area of removing youth from the adult criminal justice system. I have a chapter that is adapted from my article, Culture Clash: The Challenge of Lawyering Across Difference in Juvenile Court, 62 Rutgers L. Rev. 959 (2010). There are also chapters on the school-to-prison pipeline, addressing the mental health needs of juveniles, and best practices for working with girls in the delinquency system.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Summer Work Program Brings Change; Teens Congratulated for Personal Growth (JacksonSun.com)
  Jackson, Tennessee Mayor Jerry Gist’s Gang Prevention Task Force gave jobs to 43 "at-risk" youth between the ages of 15 and 18 at different locations across Madison County. The young people worked and received mentoring. The county has seen a much lower juvenile arrest rate during this same period.
• Project to Help Juveniles Make Successful Transition (CarmiTimes.com)
  The Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission on Tuesday announced the start of a demonstration project to reduce the recidivism and improve the outcomes of juvenile offenders. The project will provide intensive reintegration services to help youth transition back into their communities.
• Prosecutors Share Details of Juvenile Justice System (EnidNews.com)
  Juvenile justice is one of the most difficult parts of the law, but a necessary one designed to do what is in the best interests of the children involved.
• Kids in Court Have a Friend in Tyler the Poodle (PNJ.com)
  Tyler [the poodle] is one of thousands of certified pet-therapy dogs nationwide, but rather than visiting people in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice centers, schools or libraries, he helps kids in the juvenile court system.
• Ohio Delegation Visits NJ To Study Juvenile Detention Reform Efforts (NJToday.net)
  A delegation from the state of Ohio including judges, court administrators, representative from the Ohio Department of Youth Services, and other stakeholders, are in New Jersey to attend a two-day working session designed to help Ohio replicate New Jersey’s success in juvenile detention reform.

Goldman Sachs is investing almost $10 million in a government program to reduce recidivism rates among adolescent men.
Earlier today, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that Goldman Sachs would provide a $9.6 million loan to pay for a new four year program to reduce the rate at which teen boys incarcerated at Rikers Island reoffend. Goldman Sachs is providing the financing through a social impact bond and will only be repaid if the program reduces recidivism rates by more than 10%. Currently, nearly 50% of the young men released from Rikers reoffend within one year.
According to the New York Times:

The Goldman money will be used to pay MDRC, a social services provider, to design and oversee the program. If the program reduces recidivism by 10 percent, Goldman would be repaid the full $9.6 million; if recidivism drops more, Goldman could make as much as $2.1 million in profit; if recidivism does not drop by at least 10 percent, Goldman would lose as much as $2.4 million.

In a recent podcast, Natalie Katz of Sage Publications interviewed Julian D. Ford, one of the authors of “Complex Trauma and Aggression in Secure Juvenile Justice Settings.” This study, written by John Chapman, Daniel F. Connor and Keith R. Cruise in addition to Ford, examines the relationship between trauma experienced by young people and aggressive behavior, especially in youths in the juvenile justice system.
Below you’ll find Natalie Katz’s main questions in bold, followed by my summary of Ford’s answers. You can also listen to the full podcast here (it’s about 15 minutes long).
What kinds of trauma are most often experienced by youths?
Most youths experience one traumatic event sometime in their childhoods. These events are very seriously threatening and fall into a few different categories:

• Violation of bodily integrity
• Violent trauma creating serious physical harm
• Accidental trauma (driving collisions, falls, etc)

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Caseload Limits a Win for Public Defenders, Clients — and Justice (The Seattle Times)
  The order requires public defenders to certify that they meet certain standards, including caseload limits and experience qualifications. The new standards limit caseloads to 400 misdemeanors or 150 felonies or 250 juvenile cases per lawyer per year.
• Juvenile Hall Camp Alternatives Catch On (SF Gate)
  Camps and community-based programs that rely on group formats and help youths develop new skills and address personal challenges fare much better when it comes to reducing recidivism, studies show.
• DJJ Recognized as the Second Juvenile Justice System to Obtain Golden Eagle Award (SurfKY.com)
  The American Correctional Association (ACA) has presented its highest honor for commitment to excellence, the Golden Eagle Award, to the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice (KYDJJ) for its work in achieving ACA accreditation in all of its facilities, the training academy, central office and community and mental health division.
• Federal Money to Help Illinois Change Troubling Youth Prison Statistic(WBEZ 91.5)
  Illinois Governor Pat Quinn's Juvenile Justice Commission says 50 to 60 percent of the kids released from youth prisons end up going back within three years. It’s a troubling statistic, but the state is now hoping to use federal money to change it.
• TJJD Doing Blanket Review of Youths in Facilities (The Texas Tribune)
  The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is in the process of reviewing the histories of all youths in its detention centers to better assess security risks in the facilities.
• Children's Defense Fund conference sparks Cleveland teens to action: Margaret Bernstein (Cleveland.com)
  At its conference this week, speakers ranging from poet Maya Angelou to Federal Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke have said the nation needs to do a better job of investing in young lives, not prisons.

Missouri is changing the way it approaches rehabilitating teens in its juvenile justice system, and it’s working. With a focus on therapy and education rather than punishment, the state closed its training schools and large facilities with minimal schooling in the early 1980s. It also did away with prison-issued uniforms and isolation cells. Now in Missouri, youth who commit crimes usually spend up to 12 months in residential centers with various levels of security, depending on the severity of the crime. Lesser crimes result in teens living in group homes or visiting day treatment centers. Every facility offers the same educational and treatment opportunity, regardless of the crimes committed.

(In this video from The Missouri Approach, young people talk about the success that Missouri’s juvenile justice system has had in their lives and share their positive plans for their futures.)
In a summary published in the 2012 summer edition of American Educator titled, Metamorphosis: How Missouri Rehabilitates Juvenile Offenders, author Jennifer Dubin explains how completely revamping the juvenile correctional system has transformed the way that the state approaches rehabilitating youth for the better. For example, Missouri’s Division of Youth Service (DYS) runs the juvenile facilities in the state, which are completely separate from the court’s jurisdiction once a youth is sentenced to a DYS facility.