On February 13th and 14th, the Campaign for Youth Justice participated in a meeting of the “Committee on a Prioritized Plan to Implement a Developmental Approach in Juvenile Justice Reform” held at the National Academies of Sciences. CFYJ’s Policy Director, Carmen Daugherty, participated in an afternoon panel with fellow advocates from the National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN) and Justice Policy Institute (JPI) to discuss the need to reauthorize, and appropriately fund, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). The panelists discussed the importance of the JJDPA and how it helps states leverage federal dollars towards innovative, evidence based programming and the need for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to be the leader in juvenile justice research.

To learn more about why JJDPA matters, visit here. 

To read coverage by the Juvenile Justice Exchange about this meeting, visit here.

On February 13-14, the Committee on a Prioritized Plan to Implement a Developmental Approach to Juvenile Justice Reform, under the direction of the Committee on Law and Justice (CLAJ), will hold its second meeting where the committee anticipates discussing access to and the quality of counsel, the role of State Advisory Groups, family engagement, and racial and ethnic disparities. This meeting will also discuss the role of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) within the larger Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act Reauthorization. CJJ Executive Director Marie Williams, J.D. will present on the role of State Advisory Groups on February 13.

Click here to RSVP. 

This committee is charged with assessing and prioritizing strategies and policies to effectively reform the juvenile justice system building on the recommendations from the 2013 report, Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. The committee assesses OJJDP's activities and internal capacities to implement its legislative mandates on juvenile justice systems, policies, and practices; and, consults with experts and practitioners in the field of juvenile justice. The committee also examines existing literature in three areas:

• Implementation science,
• Cross-agency collaboration,
• and Appropriate criteria for prioritization in the context of juvenile justice reform, including cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis where applicable.

The meeting will take place at:

Keck Center of the National Academies
Room 100
500 5th St., NW
Washington, DC

Click here to learn more about the project.  

On Thursday, July 30, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency (OJJDP) released the much anticipated Family Listening Sessions Executive Summary, available online.

In 2011, OJJDP worked in partnership with the Campaign for Youth Justice on a series of listening sessions with families whose children have been impacted by the juvenile and criminal justice systems.  Sixteen states were represented from every region in the country. The purpose of these sessions was to inform OJJDP about the experiences of system-involved youth and their families and to explore ways to improve family engagement to ensure better outcomes for children, youth and families. Thanks to all of the family members who participated in this process, your time and contribution was invaluable to this process.

We applaud OJJDP for their commitment to make family engagement a priority for the agency and for the country. We hope that with these listening sessions and the release of the Family Comes First Report that the issue of family engagement will not be a sideline issue in the immediate future.  To access the Executive Summary, abstract and Family Comes First workbook, please use the links below.

Family Engagement Listening Sessions Executive Summary:
http://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/241379.pdf

Family Engagement Listening Sessions Abstract:
http://www.ojjdp.gov/publications/PubAbstract.asp?pubi=263469

Family Comes First: A Workbook to Transform the Justice System by Partnering with Families: http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/family-comes-first.html

By Leah Robertson

On Monday, June 10, The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) discussed the findings of their recently released report: Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. The report found that well-designed, community-based programs are more likely than confinement to reduce recidivism and facilitate healthy social and moral development for most young offenders and that even in the most serious cases of personal violence, criminal court sentences should avoid confining adolescents in adult prisons.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Administrator Bob Listenbee spoke briefly about the implications of this research as a critical tool for promoting a positive behavioral model for juvenile justice. He emphasized, “I am confident that there is very strong support for juvenile justice reform at the present time” and reinforced his commitment to increasing OJJDP’s role in disseminating information on states with strong reforms and providing technical assistance to states who want to do the same. 

1. There are important differences between adults and adolescents that are well-studied and scientifically quantifiable. Much adolescent involvement in illegal activity is an extension of the kind of risk-taking that is part of the developmental process, and most adolescents mature out of these activities.
2. Knowledge about adolescent development can provide a framework for reforming the juvenile justice system to create a system that bolsters, rather than hinders, positive behavioral development.
3. Current juvenile justice approaches do not utilize the approaches that promote positive behavioral development such as family and parent engagement, pro-social peer interactions, and opportunities for social development.
4. Juvenile justice’s overreliance on incapacitation denies kids opportunities for normal socialization and disturbs development.
5. Over the past 15 years, substantial progress toward positive reforms has been made, but the pace has been slow and there is a disturbing lack of empirical data collection in the field.
6. OJJDP should take the lead to strengthen the requirements of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, in particular the valid court order (VCO) exception, disproportionate minority contact and keeping kids separated from adults.

The panelists and audience concurred that this research will be critical in advocating for reform. Practitioners emphasized that this is the research that juvenile justice experts could see, but they did not have the science to back up their observations. With this data however, there is finally a strong body of science to serve as a base for passing legislation that coordinate juvenile justice practices with the specific needs of young people.  They emphasized that reauthorizing the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act would be critical to this effort.