Found 249 matches.
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ADDRESSING THE INTERSECTIONS OF JUVENILE JUSTICE INVOLVEMENT AND YOUTH HOMELESSNESS: PRINCIPLES FOR CHANGE
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Detention | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Physical Health | Positive Youth Development and Strengths-Based Programming | Prevention | Risk Assessment and Screening | Evidence-Based Practices | Reports | Research | Partner Publications | Fact Sheets and Briefs
Coalition for Juvenile Justice reports ways to ensure young people do not experience homelessness as a result of involvement with the juvenile justice system, and likewise do not become involved with the justice system because of a lack of housing.
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HOW SHOULD JUSTICE POLICY TREAT YOUNG OFFENDERS?
Tags: National | Brain and Adolescent Development | General System Reform | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Physical Health | Evidence-Based Practices | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Research | Partner Publications
Research findings show that adolescents differ from adults in brain development and function, as well as behaviors. Current research identify differences in the brains of young adults, aged 18 to 21, indicating that they too may be immature in ways that are relevant to justice policy.
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Our Opinion: Maine should lead on closing youth prisons
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Family and Youth Involvement | Positive Youth Development and Strengths-Based Programming | Public Opinion and Messaging | Advocacy | Reports
Troubled youth should be treated in community-based settings that stress accountability and a sense of belonging. Maine, with its relatively small number of youth prisoners and strong sense of community, can and should be a leader in this effort of decarceration.
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Reducing Recidivism for Justice-Involved Youth
Tags: Federal | National | Aftercare/Reentry | General System Reform | Risk Assessment and Screening | Correctional Education | Reports | Web-Based Tools
New guides and resources to help justice-involved youth transition back to traditional school settings. Includes a guide written for incarcerated youth; a newly updated transition toolkit and resource guide for practitioners in juvenile justice facilities.
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ACLU FINDS PAROLE NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR PRISONERS WHO COMMITTED SERIOUS CRIMES AS YOUTH
Tags: National | General System Reform | Life Without Parole and Parole Issues | Youth in the Adult System | Partner Publications | Fact Sheets and Briefs
REPORT SHOWS PAROLE BOARDS FAILING TO RELEASE THESE PRISONERS, DESPITE YEARS OF REHABILITATION AND EVIDENCE THAT THEY POSE NO RISK TO SOCIETY
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New Report- Defend Children: A Blueprint for Effective Juvenile Defender Services
Tags: National | Detention | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | Reports | Web-Based Tools | Partner Publications
Details how children are arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated without attorneys at their side. Youth, and disproportionately youth of color, are swept into a system that criminalizes normal childhood behavior and deliberately withholds rights and protections that children not only deserve, but are constitutionally entitled to receive.
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Improving Outcomes for Youth With Disabilities in Juvenile Corrections
Tags: Federal | National | Family and Youth Involvement | Positive Youth Development and Strengths-Based Programming | Correctional Education | Web-Based Tools
This toolkit includes evidence- and research-based practices, tools, and resources that educators, families, facilities, and community agencies can use to better support and improve the long-term outcomes for youth with disabilities in juvenile correctional facilities.
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State and Federal Policy: Incarcerated youth
Tags: Federal | National | Aftercare/Reentry | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Partner Publications
Racial disparities among youth and barriers to education leads to improvements needed for policy reform surrounding academic outcomes.
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Polling on Treatment of Youth in Trouble with the Law
Tags: National | Public Opinion and Messaging | NJJN Publications | Fact Sheets and Briefs
A newly updated summary of national polling on voter attitudes toward youth in trouble with the law.
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Total Youth Arrests for Violent Crime Still Falling Nationwide
Tags: Federal | National | Crime Data and Statistics | Research | Fact Sheets and Briefs
Estimates based on data released by the FBI in September 2016 show that youth arrests for violent crime are falling, continuing the 20-year decline. Research and data follow the trends of youth violent crime include murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
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Righting Wrongs: The Five-Year Groundswell of State Bans on Life Without Parole for Children
Tags: Nevada | West Virginia | National | Brain and Adolescent Development | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Life Without Parole and Parole Issues | Youth in the Adult System | Reports | Partner Publications
Report from Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth highlights recent legislative reforms, some of the key stakeholders involved, and some of the lives impacted by these reforms.
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Debtors' Prison for Kids? The High Cost of Fines and Fees in the Juvenile Justice System, EXEC SUMMARY
Tags: Pennsylvania | National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | Fines and Fees | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Reports | Partner Publications
A report on the impact of juvenile court costs on youth and their families. The report was featured in a New York Times article (http://nyti.ms/2d2GR0c) and includes a companion microsite featuring interactive maps (http://bit.ly/2deF6cP).
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Debtors' Prison for Kids? The High Cost of Fines and Fees in the Juvenile Justice System, JLC
Tags: Pennsylvania | National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | Fines and Fees | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Reports | Partner Publications
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Defining Violence: reducing incarceration by rethinking America’s approach to violence, JPI
Tags: National | General System Reform | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | Victims | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Reports | Partner Publications
To impact mass incarceration, this piece from the Justice Policy Institute urges rethinking how the justice system responds to violent crimes, starting with how these crimes and behaviors are defined, and how that affects prison populations.
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Crime Victims and Justice Reform - Fact Sheet from Justice Policy Institute
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Public Opinion and Messaging | Victims | Partner Publications | Fact Sheets and Briefs
Some crime victim organizations are supporting an approach to violence prevention, sentencing and violent crime that offer new opportunities to build support for policy change, and there are new opportunities to expand funding for these approaches.
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Unjust: How the Broken Juvenile and Criminal Justice Systems Fail LGBTQ Youth
Tags: National | General System Reform | LGBTQ Youth | Reports
The report identifies several factors in the overrepresentation of LGBTQ youth in the system: pervasive anti-LGBT stigma and discrimination in families and communities; and how LGBTQ young people are unfairly treated and abused in the system.
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Checklist for Safeguarding the Confidentiality of Youth in the Justice System - JLC and NJJN
Tags: National | Collateral Consequences | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | NJJN Publications
A checklist on confidentiality and expungement policy, created by Riya Shah of the Juvenile Law Center and Melissa Goemann of the National Juvenile Justice Network.
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Stemming the Rising Tide: Racial & Ethnic Disparities in Youth Incarceration and Strategies for Change (Burns Institute)
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Deinstitutionalization | Detention | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Youth in the Adult System | Restorative Justice | Reports | Partner Publications
Report from Burns Institute documenting racial disparities trends in the juvenile justice system and recommending strategies to address the roots of racial inequities and allow youth of color a chance at restorative justice and greater well being.
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CYPM in Brief: Improving Educational Outcomes for Crossover Youth, CJJR
Tags: National | Crossover and Dual Jurisdiction Youth | Correctional Education | Partner Publications
Children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems face challenges in achieving positive educational outcomes. This brief discusses relationships between childhood maltreatment, delinquency, and educational outcomes; a model to address educational outcomes and case examples.
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Comments on Juvenile Registration Under SORNA - Youth Justice Alliance
Tags: Federal | National | Sex Offender Registries | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Legislation
A Youth Justice Alliance urges the SMART office to: 1) Hold a full public hearing on the proposed guidelines to examine unintended consequences and alternative approaches that would better serve public safety before finalizing; 2) Convene a task force to study and recommend best practices for youth charged with sex offenses; 3) Revise the guidelines to incentivize evidence-based practices proven to prevent and intervene with sexual harm, and; 4) Move toward implementing a system that both reassures states they will not lose Byrne grant funding if they do not register youth and also discourages state policies that require youth registration.
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Comments on Juvenile Registration Under SORNA - Just Kids
Tags: Federal | National | Sex Offender Registries | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Legislation
A diverse and bi-partisan alliance called Just Kids suggests that the SMART Office move towards implementing a system that both reassures states they will not lose Byrne grant funding if they do not register youth and also discourages state policies that require youth registration.
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Comments on Juvenile Registration Under SORNA - Researchers with Expertise on Juvenile Sexual Offending
Tags: Federal | National | Sex Offender Registries | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Legislation
Various researchers with expertise on youth who have committed sexual offenses recommend that the SMART Office emphasize evidence-based treatment rather than registration and waiver as a way to manage youth who have sexually offended.
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Mothers at the Gate: How a Powerful Family Movement is Transforming the Juvenile Justice System
Tags: National | Family and Youth Involvement | General System Reform | Reports
This report reflects an initial effort to map a movement of family members — particularly mothers — that aims to challenge both the conditions in which their loved ones are held and the fact of mass incarceration itself, and to distill the shared wisdom of its leaders. Mothers at the Gate, produced with the financial support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, looks inside this emerging movement to find first-hand accounts, strategies, and needs of family members in their individual and collective work to transform an unjust juvenile justice system.
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A Shared Sentence: The devastating toll of parental incarceration on kids, families and communities
Tags: National | Family and Youth Involvement | General System Reform | Reports
This report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation explores the impact of parental incarceration on youth, families, and communities.
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NJJN - Addressing the Intersection of Gender and Racial Disparities: a Snapshot from the Juvenile Justice Resource Hub
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Girls | Risk Assessment and Screening | Status Offenses | NJJN Publications
Girls of color suffer the effects of gender and racial bias in the youth justice system. This snapshot from the National Juvenile Justice Network contains recommendations for addressing this.
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Evidence-Based Policies, Programs, and Practices in Juvenile Justice: Three States Achieving High Standards Through State Support Centers
Tags: National | Evidence-Based Practices | Reports | Research
JJGPS reports on states' use of evidence-based policies and programs in the field of youth justice reform.
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Fight for Our Girls: Status Offenses
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Girls | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Status Offenses | Reports | Research
This resource from the Center for the Study of Social Policy unpacks the history of girls of color's interaction with the justice system through the disproportionate application of status offense statues.
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Racial Disparities in Youth Committments and Arrests
Tags: National | Detention | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | Reports
This brief from the Sentencing Project examines continued racial and ethnic disparities among youth in contact with the justice system.
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FrameWorks Institute: Justice Gears (Metaphor)
Tags: National | Public Opinion and Messaging
In this tip card, the FrameWorks Institute shows how to use the "justice gears" explanatory metaphor in justice reform messages. Part of a larger toolkit available on their website.
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FrameWorks Institute: Justice Maze (Metaphor)
Tags: National | Public Opinion and Messaging
In this tip card, the FrameWorks Institute explains how to use the "justice maze" explanatory metaphor in justice reform messages. Part of a larger toolkit available on their website.
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FrameWorks Institute: Pragmatism (Value Card)
Tags: National | Public Opinion and Messaging
The FrameWorks Institute explains how to use the value of pragmatism in justice reform messages in this tip card. Part of a larger toolkit available on their website.
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Disparate Impact under Title VI and the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Court Decisions and Related Documents
This memorandum is intended to provide a general practice guide on the disparate impact doctrine under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, et seq.3 This overview focuses on how traditional public school and public charter school discipline policies and programs disproportionately impact students of color, a pattern known as the “school-to-prison pipeline” (“STPP”) .
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Improving Educational Opportunities for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System: Snapshot, NJJN
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Correctional Education | NJJN Publications
Summary of the barriers youth in the justice system face to accessing appropriate educational resources, and policy recommendations to overcome them.
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Trial Defense Guidelines: Representing a Child Client Facing a Possible Life Sentence
Tags: National | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | Partner Publications
The objective of these guidelines is to set forth a national standard of practice to ensure zealous, constitutionally effective representation for all juveniles facing a possible life sentence (“juvenile life”) consistent with the United States Supreme Court’s holding in Miller v. Alabama, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 2469 (2012) that trial proceedings “take into account how children are different, and how those differences counsel against irrevocably sentencing [children] to a lifetime in prison.”
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Graduated Responses Toolkit: New Resources and Insights to Help Youth Succeed on Probation
Tags: National | General System Reform | Life Without Parole and Parole Issues | Evidence-Based Practices | Reports | Partner Publications
The Center for Children’s Law and Policy has prepared a new toolkit designed to help jurisdictions create an effective graduated response system or improve an existing system. The publication collects best practices and examples from jurisdictions around the country that have successfully reduced incarceration for technical violations of probation.
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Juvenile Offenders and Victimes: 2014 National Report
Tags: National | Crime Data and Statistics | Victims | Reports
Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2014 National Report is the fourth edition of a comprehensive report on juvenile crime, victimization, and the juvenile justice system. The report consists of the most requested information on juveniles and the juvenile justice system in the U.S. Developed by the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the report draws on reliable data and relevant research to provide a comprehensive and insightful view of young offenders and victims, and what happens to those who enter the juvenile justice system in the United States.
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Status Offenses: A National Survey
Tags: National | Status Offenses | Reports | Partner Publications
This brief examines existing status offense laws across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It details the legislative label that each state applies to status offense behaviors, the types of behaviors that fall within that label, diversion options that are available in the case, possible outcomes following adjudication, and whether the state uses the valid court order (VCO) exception or a 24-hour hold for youth who are detained for status offense behaviors.3 This brief may be used by judges, advocates, and legislators to assess national trends and gather ideas for system reform.
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Future Interrupted: The Collateral Damage Caused by Proliferation of Juvenile Records
Tags: National | Confidentiality | Partner Publications
Juvenile records are increasingly available to the public through state police databases or private background check company databases. This Juvenile Law Center report demonstrates how records carry devastating collateral consequences when they remain unprotected and how background check companies sometimes provide inaccurate information.
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Poll Results on Youth Justice Reform: Gerstein, Bocian, and Agne
Tags: National | Public Opinion and Messaging | Fact Sheets and Briefs
Summary of January 2016 poll on youth justice issues conducted for the Youth First initiative.
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Compensating Victims of Crime - John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Tags: Federal | National | Victims | Reports
This report discusses the system by which victims and survivors can be compensated for expenses resulting from their victimization or from the death of a family member. Compensation originates from state statutes and is supplemented by federal funds, which represent one-third of benefits paid. States distribute compensation in the form of reimbursements to eligible victims and survivors whose claims are approved. The financial structure of victim compensation is problematic at the federal level, where funds are vastly under allocated. While some states have more than enough funds to pay compensation benefits, other state programs are understaffed or suffer from improper methods of accounting.
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Juvenile Detention Facility Assessment 2014 Update - Annie E. Casey Foundation
Tags: National | General System Reform | Institutional Conditions | Reports
Since 2004, officials in JDAI sites have assessed, improved, and monitored conditions in juvenile detention facilities using a set of standards published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The materials in this volume include updated detention facility standards, a set of guidelines for conducting facility assessments, and “How To” materials covering each component of the standards.
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Summary of National Standards Restricting the Solitary Confinement of Youth - ACLU
Tags: National | General System Reform | Youth in the Adult System | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Reports
This document highlights national standards and best practices for juvenile justice settings (including examples from specific systems), as well as mental health and educational facility standards and best practices, and international standards. These standards and best practices, drawn from a range of institutional environments, all apply limitations on the use of solitary confinement for youth.
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United Nations Human Rights Council: Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Tags: International | National | General System Reform | Institutional Conditions | Reports
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur focuses on children deprived of their liberty from the perspective of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
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Instead of Suspension: Alternative Strategies for Effective School Discipline
Tags: North Carolina | National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports | Research
This report includes a compendium of alternatives to suspension and brief profiles of examples of where those alternatives are in place. It is a unique and valuable resource for school boards, school administrators, teachers, and others who are rethinking their approaches to school discipline without compromising the learning opportunities or safety of the school community as a whole. The report will acquaint school districts with a range of approaches to school discipline. Some are proven, others are promising. All have the potential to foster better school climates and better student outcomes.
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JJGPS State Scan: U.S. Age Boundaries of Delinquency
Tags: National | Youth in the Adult System | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Reports
This JJGPS State Scan describes and lists state-based laws and policies regarding the lower and upper ages of juvenile court jurisdiction nationwide.
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United Nations: Convention on the Rights of the Child - General Comment No. 10 (2007)
Tags: International | National | General System Reform | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Reports
The objectives of this general comment are: To encourage States parties to develop and implement a comprehensive juvenile justice policy to prevent and address juvenile delinquency based on and in compliance with CRC.
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The Irrelevance of Reform: Maturation in the Department of Corrections
Tags: National | General System Reform | Life Without Parole and Parole Issues | Research
This article addresses retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation from the perspective of a thirty-six year old prisoner who has been serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole since he was fourteen years old.
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YTFG Blueprint for Youth Justice Reform - 2016
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Crossover and Dual Jurisdiction Youth | Deinstitutionalization | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Family and Youth Involvement | General System Reform | Girls | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | Youth in the Adult System | Partner Publications
The Youth Justice Work Group (YJWG) of the Youth Transition Funders Group (YTFG) envisions a youth justice system that fosters the healthy development and well-being of all children and youth by building upon their strengths, cultivating their relationships with caring adults, supporting their families and communities, and offering them age-appropriate opportunities for future success. We are committed to partnering with the broader community to promote restorative justice, safety, opportunity and positive outcomes for all young people. In order to achieve our vision, and in alignment with YTFG’s Youth Well-Being Framework, we recommend the following 10 Tenets for Youth Justice Reform.
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Juvenile Justice in a Developmental Framework
Tags: National | Brain and Adolescent Development | General System Reform | Reports
Every state has implemented developmentally-appropriate juvenile justice reform over the last 15 years, according to a report supported by the MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change initiative. The report provides a snapshot of nationwide progress as states have evolved many tough on crime policies that treat young offenders as adults to foster a system that considers youth’s developmental needs and capacity for change.
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Zero Tolerance: How States Comply with PREA’s Youthful Inmate Standard
Tags: National | Institutional Conditions | Youth in the Adult System | Reports | Research | Partner Publications
This report explores how states house youth under 18 in prisons in the new age of PREA compliance and enforcement. Furthermore, this report highlights national trends in juvenile arrests, crimes, and incarceration of children in the adult system.
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Electronic Monitoring Is Not the Answer: Critical reflections on a flawed alternative
Tags: Illinois | National | Aftercare/Reentry | General System Reform | Reports
This report offers a critical assessment of electronic monitoring (EM) in the criminal justice system. The report rejects any simplistic rush to deploy electronic monitors as an alternative to incarceration. Instead, the document sets out two critical conditions for EM to be a genuine alternative: (1) it must be used instead of incarceration in prison or jail, not as an additional condition of parole, probation, or pre-trial release; (2) it must be implemented with an alternative mindset that rejects the punitive philosophy that has dominated criminal justice since the rise of mass incarceration.
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Missed Opportunities: Preventing youth in the child welfare system from entering the juvenile justice system
Tags: National | Crossover and Dual Jurisdiction Youth | General System Reform | Reports | Research | Partner Publications
Children pulled into the child welfare system are too often not afforded the kinds of stabilizing support systems that are essential for their healthy growth and well-being. We must seek interventions to prevent these “multi-system,” “dual-status” or “crossover” youth from entering the juvenile justice system. This review found that within the children welfare system, children who eventually had juvenile justice involvement had significantly different experiences from those who did not. These findings present opportunities to intervene, and incorporate different policies and programs that can prevent these children’s juvenile justice involvement.
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Bring Youth Home: Building on Ohio's Deincarceration Leadership
Tags: Ohio | National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Deinstitutionalization | General System Reform | Member Publications
Since 1992, Ohio’s youth prison population topped 2,500 and was projected to rise to 4,000. In 1994, Ohio began implementing programs to incentivize local courts to keep youth closer to home. Today admissions to Ohio juvenile correctional facilities are lower than 500 youth and Ohio makes significant investments in redirecting youth to community-based alternatives that are less expensive and more effective than locked facilities. The report is designed to give other jurisdictions insights into lessons learned in Ohio as they create new or reevaluate existing deincarceration programs as well as to continue to encourage innovate within Ohio.
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Locked Out: Improving Educational and Vocational Outcomes for Incarcerated Youth
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | General System Reform | Institutional Conditions | Reports | Research
This report from the Council of State Governments analyzes survey results of state educational and vocational services for youth and makes recommendations for further improvement of those services.
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National Disability Rights Network: Recommendations Regarding School Policing
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports
The National Disability Rights Network provides recommendations for federal guidance on school police's behavior in response to nonviolent misbehavior or students in schools.
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Trends in Juvenile Justice State Legislation 2011-2015
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Crossover and Dual Jurisdiction Youth | Deinstitutionalization | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Reports
National Conference of State Legislatures tracks trends in state legislation of youth justice reform for 2011-2015. Specific trends have emerged to: Restore jurisdiction to the juvenile court, divert youth from the system, reform detention, shift resources from incarceration to community-based alternatives, provide strong public defense for youth, address racial and ethnic disparities in justice systems, respond more effectively to the mental health needs of young offenders, and improve re-entry and aftercare programs for youth.
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School Discipline & Security Personnel: Tip Sheet
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | NJJN Publications
School resource officers tend to criminalize normal adolescent behavior and disproportionately impact youth of color, contributing to racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system. This tip sheet offers strategies to enhance safety and diminish police contact with schoolchildren.
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Better Than Zero: How Alternative Discipline is Replacing Zero-Tolerance in Schools
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports
This paper takes a high-level look at the current national conversation and policy changes surrounding the school-to-prison pipeline, and a closer look at how zero-tolerance policies in particular are changing nationally and in several states, including some alternatives that have delivered promising results.
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Juvenile Defense Policy and Practice Career Guide
Tags: National | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | Partner Publications
The National Juvenile Defender Center's 2015 guide to careers in juvenile defense.
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R Street | The Costs and Benefits of Sex Offender Registration and Notification
Tags: National | Sex Offender Registries | Research
This report from the R Street Institute finds that the costs of sex offender registries far outweigh the benefits.
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The Supreme Court and the Transformation of Juvenile Sentencing
Tags: Federal | National | General System Reform | Reports
In the past decade, the Supreme Court has transformed the constitutional landscape of juvenile crime regulation. In three strongly worded opinions, the Court held that imposing harsh criminal sentences on juvenile offenders violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. This report from Models for Change addresses the key issues facing courts and legislatures under this new constitutional regime, and provides guidance based on the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment analysis and on the principles the Court has articulated.
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School Discipline - Student Code of Conduct Tips and Examples - Advancement Project
Tags: California | Colorado | Maryland | Pennsylvania | National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Partner Publications
Model conduct codes and tips from the Advancement Project for schools and advocates seeking to reform their school disciplinary policies to eliminate exclusionary discipline and address racial disparities. Examples from five states.
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Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth in the Juvenile Justice System: A Guide to Juvenile Detention Reform
Tags: National | LGBTQ Youth | Reports
This comprehensive publication provides juvenile justice agencies with the tools to meet their obligation to ensure the safety and well-being of LGBT youth in their care. Although the guide is focused primarily on LGBT youth, its recommendations will benefit all justice-involved youth by exposing and challenging bias, promoting mutual respect and increasing professionalism.
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Repairing the Breach: A Brief History of Youth of Color in the Justice System
Tags: National | Reports | Research
Trying to meaningfully address the unacceptable levels of racial and ethnic disparities in our youth justice system without an understanding and knowledge of the historical roots that drive it will not bring about sufficient engagement strategies. As you will see from this essay, there are deeply held beliefs and social norms from this nation’s earliest days that are embedded into youth justice administration, which create and exacerbate racial and ethnic disparities. It is a largely untold story that should be known by every youth justice professional, service provider, and practitioner as well as families and communities.
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Gender Injustice: System Level Juvenile Justice Reforms for Girls
Tags: National | Girls | Reports
To facilitate developmental juvenile justice system reform for girls, this report will: 1) Map girls’ current paths into and through the juvenile justice system; 2) Describe the social contexts driving girls’ behavior and involvement in the juvenile justice system; and 3) Detail recommendations for an alternative, developmental approach to redesign juvenile justice systems to address harmful social contexts and girls’ resulting behaviors, rather than penalize and punish girls for challenges beyond their control.
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Engaging Law Enforcement on Youth Justice Reform: a Policy Update
Tags: National | Brain and Adolescent Development | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | NJJN Publications
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Power in Partnerships: Building Connections at the Intersections of Racial Justice and LGBTQ Movements to End the School-to-Prison-Pipeline
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | LGBTQ Youth | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports
Over the last decade, the school-to-prison pipeline has gone from a fringe educational issue to a national youth-led movement anchored by grassroots communities across the country. Because of the school-to-prison pipeline’s unique effects on students of color, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students, and especially LGBTQ students of color, the issue has provided an opportunity for powerful intersectional work among the racial justice community and the LGBTQ community. And while we have made a lot of progress by harnessing our joint power, we would like to—and desperately need to—build even more. This is essential if we are going to win. Power in Partnerships is a resource for all racial justice and LGBTQ groups to help build or continue to build that power.
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Maltreatment of Youth in U.S. Juvenile Corrections Facilities: An Update
Tags: National | General System Reform | Institutional Conditions | Reports | Research
This report, released as a follow-up to No Place For Kids, introduces new evidence on the widespread maltreatment of youth in state-funded juvenile corrections facilities. It tells of high rates of sexual victimization, the heavy-handed use of disciplinary isolation and a growing roster of states where confined youth have been subject to widespread abuse.
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Victims Voices for Reform: 4 Crime Victim Advocates Weigh in on Changes to State Sentencing Laws
Tags: National | Victims | Media
In a growing number of states, crime victims and survivors are actively participating in the development of sentencing and corrections policies and funding decisions to help prevent others from being victimized. The reforms, many of which are part of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), use data-driven strategies to hold offenders accountable, control costs, and protect public safety. In several states, these changes also have helped improve victim services, including notification systems that provide timely updates about offenders’ status within the criminal justice system.
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Studying Deterrence Among High-Risk Adolescents - OJJDP Bulletin
Tags: National | Brain and Adolescent Development | Research
In this bulletin, the authors present some key findings on the link between perceptions of the threat of sanctions and deterrence from crime among serious adolescent offenders.
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The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls' Story
Tags: National | Girls | Reports | Research
This report exposes the ways in which we criminalize girls — especially girls of color — who have been sexually and physically abused, and it offers policy recommendations to dismantle the abuse to prison pipeline. By illuminating both the problem and potential solutions, we hope to make the first step toward ending the cycle of victimization-to-imprisonment for marginalized girls.
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In-District Toolkit for NJJN Members: Resources to Help You Connect with Your Member of Congress in their Home District
Tags: Federal | National | General System Reform | NJJN Publications
Toolkit to guide NJJN members in connecting with their Congresspeople in support of the JJDPA.
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"Crimes of Children," The Atlantic
Tags: National | Sex Offender Registries | Media
In this long-form piece from the Atlantic, journalist Dylan Walsh focuses on the collateral consequences of youth placed on sex offender registries. The article features the story of a young man - Jean Karlo - who was deported to Mexico as a consequence of a Romeo & Juliet-type sex offense committed when he was 17.
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Confining Youth for Profit | Policy Platform | PDF
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Institutional Conditions | Privatization | NJJN Publications
NJJN recommends ending the use of for-profit private youth confinement facilities because they encourage the incarceration of youth and the elimination of services youth need to succeed. Also, making money on keeping youth in bondage is morally wrong.
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Protecting Youth Confined for Profit - Policy Safeguards | PDF
Tags: National | Detention | Institutional Conditions | Positive Youth Development and Strengths-Based Programming | Privatization | NJJN Publications
NJJN opposes the use of for-profit private youth confinement facilities because they encourage the incarceration of youth and the elimination of services youth need to succeed; and they are morally wrong. Where they are still used, these policy safeguards help protect youth, taxpayers, and public safety.
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Snapshot: Using Re-Entry Thinking to Guide Placement Decisions
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | NJJN Publications
It’s never too early to begin thinking about re-entry. Focusing on helping youth to successfully re-enter the community starting from the time they first become involved in the juvenile justice system, or a “think exit at entry” philosophy, can help to positively guide juvenile justice decisions every step of the way. This snapshot shares some examples of how re-entry thinking can benefit youth.
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Snapshot: Using Re-Entry Thinking to Guide Placement Decisions
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | NJJN Publications
It's never too early to begin thinking about re-entry. Focusing on helping youth to successfully re-enter the community starting from the time they first become involved in the juvenile justice system, or a "think exit at entry" philosophy, can help to positively guide juvenile justice decisions every step of the way. This snapshot shares some examples of how re-entry thinking can benefit youth.
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Snapshot: Using Re-Entry Thinking to Guide Placement Decisions
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | General System Reform | NJJN Publications
It's never too early to begin thinking about re-entry. Focusing on helping youth to successfully re-enter the community starting from the time they first become involved in the juvenile justice system, or a "think exit at entry" philosophy, can help to positively guide juvenile justice decisions every step of the way. This snapshot shares some examples of how re-entry thinking can benefit youth.
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Are We Closing the School Discipline Gap? (Center for Civil Rights Remedies)
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports
The main body of this report from the Center for Civil Rights Remedies documents gross disparities in the use of out-of-school suspension experienced by students with disabilities and those from historically disadvantaged racial, ethnic, and gender subgroups. The egregious disparities revealed in the pages that follow transform concerns about educational policy that allows frequent disciplinary removal into a profound matter of civil rights and social justice. This implicates the potentially unlawful denial of educational opportunity and resultant disparate impact on students in numerous districts across the country.
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Ten Strategies to Reduce Juvenile Length of Stay
Tags: National | General System Reform | Institutional Conditions | Reports
The Juvenile Law Center lays out ten strategies that help states reduce the amount of time young people spend in lockup.
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Bridging the Divide: A New Paradigm for Addressing Safety, Crime, and Victimization
Tags: National | Victims | Reports
Bridging the Divide provides snapshots of work being done on the ground and proposes arenas for further action. Victim advocates and criminal justice reformers are engaged in the lengthy, difficult work of creating safe and healthy communities.
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Psychiatric Disorders and Violence: A Study of Delinquent Youth After Detention
Tags: National | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Research
This study examines the relationship between psychiatric disorders and violence in youth post-detention. The study finds that the disorders studied are not useful predictors of future violence.
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Psychosocial Maturity and Desistance From Crime in a Sample of Serious Juvenile Offenders
Tags: International | National | Brain and Adolescent Development | Research
This study of 1,300 serious juvenile offenders concludes that the majority of youthful offenders mature out of criminal behavior as their brains develop toward impulse control and future-orientation.
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U.N. Human Rights Council | Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment | Juan E. Méndez
Tags: International | National | Institutional Conditions | International and Human Rights | Life Without Parole and Parole Issues | Shackling | Reports
A report for the United Nations' Human Rights Council condemns the use of extreme sentencing, juvenile life without parole, shackling, solitary confinement, and youth in adult court in juvenile justice systems in the U.S.
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From Playgrounds to Prisons: An updated look at school-based arrests in Arkansas
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports | Research | Member Publications
Each year, law enforcement action is taken in more than 3,000 incidents in Arkansas schools. The data show that the majority of children in the state of Arkansas affected by school policing are arrested for nonviolent offenses. This finding is consistent with the nationwide trends. Across the country, millions of students are being removed from their classrooms each year for minor misconduct.
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Judicial Leadership to Address Adolescent Mental Health Needs
Tags: National | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Reports
Large numbers of youth involved with the juvenile justice system have significant mental health and substance abuse issues. Many of these youth could be better served in community settings, and juvenile court judges can lead or support community efforts to develop improved policies and service delivery strategies for these youth.
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Juvenile Justice Reform: County Leadership Roles and Opportunities
Tags: National | General System Reform | Reports
County governments are uniquely positioned to be leaders in the juvenile justice field and have a dramatic impact on the lives of their young residents, families and the broader community. As the primary local provider of health, justice and social services, counties have the opportunity and responsibility to implement comprehensive, evidence-based programs and policies that bolster public safety and improve human outcomes. The National Association of Counties (NACo) has joined the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change Juvenile Justice Reform Initiative to educate and assist county leaders as they undertake important improvements to benefit communities and reduce costs.
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Law Enforcement’s Leadership Role in Juvenile Justice Reform: Actionable Recommendations for Practice & Policy
From the National Summit on Law Enforcement Leadership in Juvenile Justice, which the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) convened with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, this report sets forth 33 recommendations for concrete actions that law enforcement leaders can take in collaboration with partners at the local, state, and national levels.
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Rocking the Cradle: Ensuring the Rights of Parents with Disabilities and Their Children
Tags: National | Family and Youth Involvement | General System Reform | Reports
The goal of this report is to advance understanding and promote the rights of parents with disabilities and their children. The report provides a comprehensive review of the barriers and facilitators people with diverse disabilities—including intellectual and developmental, psychiatric, sensory, and physical disabilities—experience when exercising their fundamental right to create and maintain families, as well as persistent, systemic, and pervasive discrimination against parents with disabilities. The report analyzes how U.S. disability law and policy apply to parents with disabilities in the child welfare and family law systems, and the disparate treatment of parents with disabilities and their children. Examination of the impediments prospective parents with disabilities encounter when accessing assisted reproductive technologies or adopting provides further examples of the need for comprehensive protection of these rights.
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State Juvenile Justice Profiles, 2005
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Reports | Research
The National Center for Juvenile Justice compiles a vast body of knowledge concerning the organization and administration of juvenile justice in each of the fifty states in 2005.
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Cost-Benefit Analysis and Justice Policy Toolkit
Tags: National | Fiscal Issues and Funding | Web-Based Tools
This toolkit, provided by the Vera Institute of Justice, guides readers through producing cost-benefit analyses in the field of justice policy.
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Implementing an Effective Graduated Responses System
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Administrative/Regulatory Policies
Brief overview of the rationale for graduated responses, along with resources and steps to design and implement one.
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Trauma in Dual Status Youth: Putting Things In Perspective
Tags: National | Crossover and Dual Jurisdiction Youth | Research | Partner Publications
This article describes the state of our understanding of the prevalence of trauma-based behavior problems and considerations in designing agreed-upon best practices to identify them.
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The SBDI Toolkit: A Community Resource for Reducing School-Based Arrests
Tags: Connecticut | National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports
Toolkit developed based on the Connecticut model to divert school-based youth arrests.
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Public Opinion on Juvenile Justice in America
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | General System Reform | Reports
This poll conducted by PEW Charitable Trusts explores voters' opinions on salient topics in juvenile justice policy. Key findings: 1) Voters believe that young people are different from adults, and the courts should invest in preventative programs; 2) Voters support diverting low-level youth offenders from confinement facilities; 3) Voters cross-demographically support juvenile justice reform.
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Act-4-JJ Press Release: Bipartisan consensus on strengthening federal law to reduce incarceration, make state juvenile justice systems more fair, improve public safety
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | Status Offenses | Youth in the Adult System | Legislation | Media | Partner Publications
Act-4-JJ's press statement regarding the bill introduced on December 11, 2014 by Sens. Whitehouse and Grassley that would reauthorize the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA).
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Bill: Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act Reauthorization, December 11, 2014
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | Status Offenses | Youth in the Adult System | Legislation
The content of the bill introduced on December 11, 2014 by Sens. Whitehouse and Grassley that would reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA).
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JJDPA Reauthorization Bill - Summary - December, 2014
Tags: Iowa | Rhode Island | National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | Status Offenses | Youth in the Adult System | Legislation | Reports | Partner Publications
ACT-4-JJ summarizes the content of a bill that would reauthorize the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), introduced by Sens. Whitehouse and Grassley on December 11, 2014.
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Press Release: JJDPA Reathorization Bill, December 2014
Tags: Iowa | Rhode Island | National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | Status Offenses | Youth in the Adult System | Legislation | Media | NJJN Publications
A joint press release from the National Juvenile Justice Network and the Coalition for Juvenile Justice regarding the December 11, 2014 re-introduction of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) by Sens. Whitehouse and Grassley.
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An IEP for the Juvenile Justice System: Incorporating Special Education Law Throughout the Delinquency Process
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | Institutional Conditions | Correctional Education | Research
In correctional institutions, the number of youth with special education needs is nearly three times the national average of all school-aged children identified as having a disability. This article encourages and attempts to demystify the use of special education law and its “byproducts” (e.g., Individual Education Programs and Independent Education Evaluations) throughout the delinquency process.
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Because Kids are Different: Five Opportunities for Reforming the Juvenile Justice System
Tags: National | Confidentiality | Institutional Conditions | Sex Offender Registries | Youth in the Adult System | Shackling | Partner Publications
This Models for Change document concisely frames five reform policy areas in light of adolescent development: adult transfer, solitary confinement; confidentiality of juvenile records; sex offenses registries; and courtroom shackling.
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Because Kids are Different: Five Opportunities for Reforming the Juvenile Justice System
Tags: National | Brain and Adolescent Development | Confidentiality | Institutional Conditions | Sex Offender Registries | Youth in the Adult System | Shackling | NJJN Publications
This Models for Change document concisely frames five reform policy areas in light of adolescent development: adult transfer, solitary confinement; confidentiality of juvenile records; sex offenses registries; and courtroom shackling.
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Class Action Litigation Involving Special Education Claims for Youth in Juvenile and Adult Correctional Facilities
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | Institutional Conditions | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Correctional Education | Court Decisions and Related Documents | Reports
This document from the National Center on Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice lists class action litigation that has been undertaken regarding special education for youth and adults in the justice system.
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Core Principles for Reducing Recidivism and Improving Other Outcomes for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | Research
This white paper was written to guide leaders across all branches of government; juvenile justice system administrators, managers, and front-line staff; and researchers, advocates, and other stakeholders on how to better leverage existing research and resources to facilitate system improvements that reduce recidivism and improve other outcomes for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. The focus of the white paper is to promote what works to support successful reentry for youth who are under juvenile justice system supervision.
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How Effective Is Correctional Education, and Where Do We Go from Here?
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | Institutional Conditions | Correctional Education | Research
More than 2 million adults are incarcerated in U.S. prisons, and each year more than 700,000 leave federal and state prisons and return to communities. Unfortunately, within three years, 40 percent will be reincarcerated. One reason for this is that ex-offenders lack the knowledge, training, and skills to support a successful return to communities. The RAND team conducted a systematic review of correctional education programs for incarcerated adults and juveniles. The study included a nationwide survey of state correctional education directors to understand how correctional education is provided today and the recession's impact.
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Recommendations to Improve Correctional and Reentry Education for Young People
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | Brain and Adolescent Development | Institutional Conditions | Correctional Education | Reports | Partner Publications
The Juvenile Law Center offers these policy recommendations to improve education for youth in confinement and recently exiting confinement.
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Community-Based Supervision: Increased Public Safety, Decreased Expenditures - Tip Sheet
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Fiscal Issues and Funding | NJJN Publications
This tip sheet, jointly issued by NJJN's Fiscal Policy Center and the Safely Home Campaign of Youth Advocate Programs, Inc., summarizes the social and cost benefits of community-based supervision compared to incarceration.
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Considerations in Applying Benefit-Cost Analysis to Preventive Interventions for Children, Youth, and Families: Workshop Summary
Tags: National | Fiscal Issues and Funding | Reports
Report from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council on issues in re: cost-benefit analyses and about using them to inform policy and practice.
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DataBits: Violent Youth Arrests Continue to Fall Nationwide
Tags: National | Crime Data and Statistics | Reports
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice released this one-pager summarizing data that indicates the number of youth arrests for violent offenses continues to fall across the U.S.
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Failed Policies, Forfeited Futures: A Nationwide Scorecard on Juvenile Records
Tags: National | General System Reform | Reports | Partner Publications
Juvenile Law Center published this Scorecard to address the negative consequences that flow from the retention and dissemination of juvenile records, and to illustrate how states differ in their treatment of those records.
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Juvenile Records: A National Review of State Laws on Confidentiality, Sealing and Expungement
Tags: National | Confidentiality | Partner Publications
Public access to records of juvenile arrests, court proceedings and dispositions can impede successful transitions to adulthood for many youth, especially when these records remain available long after the youth’s involvement with the juvenile justice system has ended. These records can create obstacles for youth seeking employment, education, housing and other opportunities. This review provides an overview of how juvenile records are treated nationwide. In order to provide a comprehensive review, the authors surveyed state statutes, court rules, and case law governing the treatment of juvenile records in each jurisdiction. Because what is codified in law does not always reflect practice, the authors supplemented research, when possible, with interviews with practitioners.
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Presentation: Social Impact Bonds / Pay For Success: Pros, Cons, Promises and Risks
Tags: International | National | Presentations
PowerPoint presentation from NJJN-sponsored webinar "Social Impact Bonds / Pay For Success: Pros, Cons, Promises and Risks." Presenters: Kelly Walsh, John K. Roman, Kyle McKay.
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Highlights from Pathways to Desistance: A Longitudinal Study of Serious Adolescent Offenders
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | Brain and Adolescent Development | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Deinstitutionalization | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Evidence-Based Practices | Reports | Research
The Pathways to Desistance Study is a large collaborative multidisciplinary project that is following 1,354 serious juvenile offenders age 14-18 for 7 years after their conviction. The primary findings of the study to date deal with the decrease in self-reported offending over time by most serious adolescent offenders, the relative inefficacy of longer juvenile incarcerations in decreasing recidivism, the effectiveness of community-based supervision, and the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment in reducing both substance use and offending.
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Perils of Registering Youth Who Commit Sex Offenses: Research Update
Tags: National | Sex Offender Registries | Research | NJJN Publications
Registries and notification laws for people who commit sex offenses offer no clear public safety benefits. Though registration is not an effective way to reduce sex offending among adults and youth alike, it is an especially inappropriate response to youth, who are highly unlikely to become repeat sex offenders.
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Youth Who Commit Sex Offenses: Research Update
Tags: National | Sex Offender Registries | Research | NJJN Publications
Registries for youth who commit sex offenses not only fail to protect child welfare and overall public safety, but actually jeopardize it, while taking an enormous toll on the youth who have offended. New research sheds light on why youth commit sex offenses and how to achieve the best outcomes.
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Changing Priorities: State Criminal Justice Reforms and Investments in Education
Tags: National | Fiscal Issues and Funding | Reports
This report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities examines an imbalance in states between incarceration costs and investments in education.
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The Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice 2013 Recommendations to the President, Congress, and OJJDP Administrator
Tags: Federal | National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Family and Youth Involvement | General System Reform | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Evidence-Based Practices | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Reports
The Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice makes policy recommendations on topics of evidence-based practices, youth engagement, youth justice and schools, and disproportionate minority contact, as well as strongly urging the president, congress, and OJJDP to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention act.
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The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences
Tags: National | Crime Data and Statistics | Deinstitutionalization | General System Reform | Reports | Research
This study encompasses research on, and analyses of, the proximate causes of the dramatic rise in the prison population, the societal dynamics that supported those proximate causes, and the effects of this increase on U.S. society.
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LGBTQ Youth of Color: Discipline Disparities, School Push-Out, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Tags: National | LGBTQ Youth | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports | Research | Partner Publications
LGBT students are at an increased risk for verbal and physical harassment and assault, mental illness and suicide, harsh disciplinary policies that contribute to school push-out, etc. This study finds that schools are hostile spaces to many students of color.
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LGBTQ Youth of Color: School Discipline Disparities Recommendations
Tags: National | LGBTQ Youth | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports
New research from GSA Network and Crossroads Collaborative finds that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, gender nonconforming youth, and youth of color not only face bullying and harassment from peers, but also harsh and disparate discipline from school staff, relatively higher levels of policing and surveillance, and blame for their own victimization. Based on these findings, Advancement Project and GSA Network make the following recommendations for youth, teachers, school administrators, and policy makers.
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Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | Reports | Research
This report, put out by the Sentencing Project, examines skewed racial perceptions of crime – particularly, white Americans’ strong associations of crime with racial minorities – have bolstered harsh and biased criminal justice policies.
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Implementing Juvenile Justice Reform: The Federal Role
Tags: Federal | National | General System Reform | Reports
Full text of "Implementing Juvenile Justice Reform: The Federal Role," published by the National Academies Press.
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Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach (Full Text)
Tags: International | National | Brain and Adolescent Development | Reports
Full text of the National Academy of Sciences' highly influential report, "Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach." The report discusses adolescence as a distinct, yet transient, period of development between childhood and adulthood characterized by increased experimentation and risk-taking, a tendency to discount long-term consequences, and heightened sensitivity to peers and other social influences. Research indicates that for most youth, the period of risky experimentation does not extend beyond adolescence, ceasing as identity becomes settled with maturity. Much adolescent involvement in criminal activity is part of the normal developmental process of identity formation and most adolescents will mature out of these tendencies.
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STATE TRENDS: Updates from the 2013-2014 Legislative Session
Tags: National | Youth in the Adult System | Reports | Partner Publications
The Campaign for Youth Justice recently released this report highlighting the incredible work of advocates, families, youth, and policy makers to decrease the number of children entering into the adult criminal justice system.
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Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice Systems: Promising Practices
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | NJJN Publications
Although crime rates and youth confinement have fallen sharply, youth of color are disproportionately represented at nearly all points in the juvenile justice system. This document draws on Models for Change innovations to identify policy recommendations to reduce these disparities. Photo by Victor Keegan: http://bit.ly/1uGjF6P.
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Unchain the Children: Policy Opportunities to End the Shackling of Youth in Court
Tags: National | Brain and Adolescent Development | General System Reform | Shackling | NJJN Publications
Children in far too many states are forced to appear in court shackled -- often wearing handcuffs, leg irons, and belly chains connecting ankle and hand restraints. This policy update reviews strategies to end indiscriminate shackling of youth in court developed with the support of Models for Change. (Photo by Victor Keegan: http://bit.ly/1uGjF6P.) HTML version here: http://bit.ly/1taMkBi
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Juveniles in Placement, 2011 (OJJDP)
Tags: National | Deinstitutionalization | Detention | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | Youth in the Adult System | Reports
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention provides a detailed picture of youth in both public and private residential placements for the year 2011.
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Revised Guidance on Jail Removal and Separation Core Requirements
Tags: National | Youth in the Adult System | Administrative/Regulatory Policies
OJJDP Publication "Revised Guidance on Jail Removal and Separation Core Requirements" offers new guidance related to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act's (JJDPA) Sight and Sound Separation requirement for children in adult jails and lockups.
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Op-ed: Reflections on Justice After Ferguson, MO: When Will Youth of Color Receive the Same Due Process as Officer Darren Wilson?
Tags: Missouri | National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | Media
Marsha Levick and Mae Quinn: If you had to choose between the protections afforded Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson and the treatment provided to most young black males in America, which would you demand for your child?
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Reducing Youth Confinement
Tags: National | NJJN Publications
This NJJN policy platform outlines pathways to safely and effectively divert youth from confinement facilities, with an emphasis on rehabilitation and community supports.
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Close to Home: Strategies to Place Young People in Their Communities
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Reports | Research | Partner Publications
This report from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency details ways in which juvenile justice advocates and practitioners can promote policies to keep youth in their communities and out of confinement facilities.
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Preventing Youth Violence: Opportunities for Action
Tags: National | Prevention | Reports | Research
The Centers for Disease Control provide this guide to the causes and costs of youth violence, and provides recommendations for intervention to prevent young people from engaging in violence.
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Trauma and Resilience: A New Look at Legal Advocacy for Youth in the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems
Tags: National | Crossover and Dual Jurisdiction Youth | Risk Assessment and Screening | Reports | Partner Publications
This report from the Juvenile Law Center sets forth key points about using research on trauma in advocacy for system-involved youth.
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Making the Case for Status Offense Systems Change: A Toolkit
Tags: National | Status Offenses | Media | Partner Publications
This toolkit from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice guides readers through talking points and arguments for reformers working on status offense systems change.
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NCCD Compares Juvenile Justice Risk Assessment Instruments: A Summary of the OJJDP-Funded Study
Tags: National | Risk Assessment and Screening | Reports | Partner Publications
The National Council on Crime and Delinquency provides an assessment and comparison of instruments used for risk assessment of system-involved youth.
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A Toolkit for Status Offense System Reform, Module Two: Using Local Information to Guide System Change
Tags: National | Status Offenses | Web-Based Tools
In this second module for status offense system reform, the Vera Institute of Justice recommends conducting a system assessment in order to fully grasp how the status offense system works. Once the policies are understood, then data should be collected on how local stakeholders view the system. By collecting and analyzing data on how others perceive the system, ways on how to bring change and reform will be more apparent.
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A Toolkit for Status Offense System Reform, Module One: Structuring System Change
Tags: National | Status Offenses | Research | Web-Based Tools
This toolkit on status offense reform offers ways in which youths can be provided the effective treatment and guidance needed; all while avoiding the trauma and stigmatization of the criminal justice system. These steps include diversion from court, focus on home-life, accessible services to those who need them, and following up on those who do require assistance.
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A Toolkit for Status Offense System Reform, Module Three: Planning and Implementing System Change
Tags: National | Status Offenses | Web-Based Tools
In Module Three of the status offense system reform, data will be used from the system assessment to start implementing a reformed system that meets everyone's needs. By building on existing practices across the country, prioritizing areas for reform, setting goals, and lastly designing the reform, this plan will come to life.
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Helping Families to Support Their LGBT Children
Tags: National | LGBTQ Youth | Research
Research combined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, provides guidelines for families on how to promote the well-being of LGBT children. Parents and caregivers are big influences in their children's life, and learning how to be accepting and provide a stable home environment is key.
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Innovation Brief: Avoiding and Mitigating the Collateral Consequences of a Juvenile Adjudication
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Reports | Partner Publications
This Innovation Brief by MacArthur ModelsforChange talks about the impact of the stigma that follows youths after entering the juvenile justice system, even if it's their first and only time.
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Innovation Brief: Early Appointment of Counsel
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Partner Publications
In this Innovation Brief by MacArthur ModelsforChange, the importance of having counsel present in the earliest stages of the court process for youths is stressed.
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Innovation Brief: Facilitating Health Care Coverage for Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Partner Publications
This Innovation Brief by MacArthur ModelsforChange explains that when youths are placed into the juvenile justice system, and placed into a facility, they still have health and behavioral needs that must be met.
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Innovation Brief: Illinois’ JWatch Probation Data & Case Management System
Tags: Illinois | National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Partner Publications
This Innovation Brief by MacArthur ModelsforChange, introduces a tool called JWatch, which allows for the exchanging and collecting of mass amounts of information concerning youth in conflict with the law.
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Innovation Brief: Judicial Colloquies: Communicating with Kids in Court
Tags: Washington | National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Partner Publications
MacArthur ModelsforChange Innovation Brief poses the issue of effectively communicating and getting through to youths who go enter the juvenile justice system, especially during the court process.
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Innovation Brief: The Cultural Enhancement Model for Evidence-Based Practice
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Partner Publications
MacArthur ModelsforChange presents an Innovation Brief that has ways to improve on evidence-based strategies to improve involvement of the community and clients.
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Innovation Brief: Using Community Truancy Boards to Tackle Truancy
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Reports | Partner Publications
This Innovation Brief by MacArthur ModelsforChange suggests how to confront the problem of truant youths through a school-oriented intervention.
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Runaway Youth: A Research Brief
Tags: National | Status Offenses | Research
Running away not only is a status offense for youths, but there are so many more consequences tied along with it. This research shows that runaways have a higher correlation of an unstable home-life, a higher chance of drug use, and a high correlation between those who run away and those who are victims of sexual abuse. While running away is considered a status offense in 39 states, there are bigger underlying problems these youths have than entering the juvenile justice system.
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Slow to Act: State Responses to 2012 Supreme Court Mandate on Life Without Parole
Tags: National | General System Reform | Legislation
In 2012, Miller v. Alabama ruled that juveniles can't be automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole. Resulting in several states revising their juvenile sentencing laws, however not all states have adopted this view. Miller v. Alabama serves as a good reminder that kids aren't adults, and should be treated accordingly.
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Behavioral Health Problems, Treatment, and Outcomes in Serious Youthful Offenders
Tags: National | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Positive Youth Development and Strengths-Based Programming | Reports | Research
Research done by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, provides pathways to desistance for youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system. This can be accomplished by focusing on mental health needs, behavioral health problems, and following up with these youth once care has been adminstered.
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Breaking School's Rules: A Statewide Study of How School Discipline Relates to Students' Success and Juvenile Justice Involvement
Tags: Texas | National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Research
This combined report by the Justice Center and Public Policy Research Institute shows that students who receive more school disciplinary action have a greater likelihood of becoming involved with the juvenile justice system. The research also shows that more focus needs to be put towards whether these school disciplinary actions are having the deterring effect they are intended to.
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Collateral Damage: America's Failure to Forgive or Forget in the War on Crime
Tags: National | Victims | Presentations
The stigma an offender receives upon entering the criminal justice system is lifelong. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers provide guidelines of how to restore rights of these persons, along with the suggestions of some type of relief or pardon that should relieve mandatory collateral consequences.
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Trauma and Resilience A New Look at Legal Advocacy for youth in the juvenile justice and child welfar systems
Tags: National | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Physical Health | Research
This research addresses trauma in the juvenile justice system and child welfare cases. Both "trauma" and "resilience" are defined in terms of their relation to the juvenile justice system and neither have the same meaning across our diverse youth population. Several factors such as stressors, environment, and experiences contribute to personal definitions of "trauma" and "resilience."
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Safely Home
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Reports
Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP) published this report detailing the effectiveness of community-based alternatives to incarceration.
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Blind Discretion: Girls of Color & Delinquency in the Juvenile Justice System
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Girls | Research
The purpose of the juvenile justice system, is to cater to each youth's individual needs. However, according to Jyoti Nanda, girls of color tend to slip through the crack of the juvenile justice system. Not only is there a gender gap in the system, but also a racial one. Nanda provides solutions to help close this gap.
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Girls and Boys in the Juvenile Justice System: Are There Differences That Warrant Policy Changes in the Juvenile Justice System?
Tags: National | Girls | Research
The occurrence of offending girls is steadily rising. Due to this statistic, the juvenile justice system needs to be more readily equipped in order to provide the services and resources that these girls need. Research was collaborated by The Future of Children organization, and according to this data, suggestions for treatment are made and consequences that may result if no action is taken.
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Justice for Girls: Are We Making Progress?
Tags: National | Brain and Adolescent Development | Girls | Research
The Juvenile Justice System's goal is rehabilitation for all youths. However, unintentional discrimination towards girls may occur due to societal standards and norms. Francine T. Sherman suggests ways of how people within the Juvenile Justice System can be aware of unconscious gender bias, and not let it hinder providing both girls and boys the individual specific treatment that they need. History of girls in the justice system, information on child development, and data on the impact on girls who are involved in the system, provide insight as to how gender bias can be eliminated.
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Voices From the Field: Findings From the NGI Listening Sessions
Tags: National | Family and Youth Involvement | Girls | Positive Youth Development and Strengths-Based Programming | Partner Publications
The National Girls Institute (NGI) reveals information from listening sessions, which relay how effective their strategies with girls at risk or involved with the justice system have been. NGI's goal is to have the girls comfortable and at ease when working with the staff.
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Can Risk Assessment Improve Juvenile Justice Practices?
Tags: National | Risk Assessment and Screening | Research | Partner Publications
The MacArthur Foundation provides steps in identifying risk factors for delinquency. Research shows that past approaches for deterrence have actually increased the likelihood of youths becoming involved in the justice system. By learning to identify certain risk factors, children can avoid the juvenile justice system.
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My Brother's Keeper Task Force Report to the President
Tags: Federal | National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Reports
A report by My Brother's Keeper explains how to improve life prospects and opportunities for boys and young men of color. Guidelines are based on a 90 day implementation program to help provide equal opportunities by focusing on specific areas such as education, home environment, and the workforce.
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Transforming Victim Services Executive Summary
Tags: Federal | National | Victims | Reports | Research
Vision 21 aims to bring more awareness and knowledge about crime victimization. The final report provides recommendations on how to do so through state, local, and federal levels. Through a collaborative effort, data at all levels should be combined, which should bring an end to the research gap that exists on the topic of crime victimization.
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Transforming Victim Services Final Report
Tags: Federal | National | Victims | Reports | Research
Vision 21 expands the knowledge of crime victimization by delving into three areas of research: basic research, program evaluation, and evidence-based practices. These three areas of research exposes the impact of crime on victims and its consequences. Research shows that more focus needs to be put on victims' rights and providing services to them.
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Vision 21 At a Glance
Tags: Federal | National | Victims | Reports
There are still ongoing challenges in providing crime victims with the adequate services that they need. Ways to avoid these challenges and lack of resources for crime victims are: conduct and integrate strategic planning on all government levels, provide empirical data, strive for policies regarding crime victim issues, and make sure this field area is equipped with the technology it needs.
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The School Discipline Consensus Report
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports
Strategies from the field to keep students engaged in school and out of the juvenile justice system. Published by the Council of State Governments.
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From Conversation to Collaboration: How Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Agencies Can Work Together to Improve Outcomes for Dual Status Youth
Tags: National | Crossover and Dual Jurisdiction Youth | Reports
White paper from the RFK resource center and MacArthur's Models for Change initiative regarding system collaboration between child welfare and youth justice systems, to address the specific needs of dual-status youth.
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Criminal Career Patterns
Tags: National | Crime Data and Statistics | Reports
This publication from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention discusses the criminal careers of offenders, specifically the links between offending patterns in adolescence and in adulthood.
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Explanations for Offending
Tags: National | Crime Data and Statistics | Research
This publication from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention describes five broad theoretical perspectives that explain these patterns of offending: (1) static theories, (2) dynamic or life-course developmental models, (3) social psychological theories, (4) the developmental psychopathological perspective, and (5) the biopsychosocial perspective.
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My Brother's Keeper Task Force Report to the President
Tags: Federal | National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities
A report by My Brother's Keeper explains how to improve life prospects and opportunities for boys and young men of color. Guidelines are based on a 90 day implementation program to help provide equal opportunities by focusing on specific areas such as education, home environment, and the workforce.
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Prediction and Risk/Needs Assessment
Tags: National | Risk Assessment and Screening | Reports
This bulletin from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention discusses our ability to predict whether a young adult will commit crimes based on information available from his or her juvenile years and reviews assessment tools used to make these predictions.
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Social Impact Bonds: Tip Sheet
Tags: Massachusetts | New York | Utah | National | Fiscal Issues and Funding | NJJN Publications
What are social impact bonds? Where did they come from? This tip sheet from NJJN's Fiscal Policy Center has the answers, plus: benefits, pitfalls, and real-life examples.
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Best Practices in the Use of Restraints with Pregnant Women and Girls Under Correctional Custody
Tags: National | Girls | Administrative/Regulatory Policies
The purpose of the best practices statement is to guide state and local institutions to develop effective internal policies, procedures, and practices that maximize safety and minimize risk for pregnant women and girls, their fetuses/newborns, and correctional and medical staff. The recommendations emphasize the collaborative development (between correctional leaders and medical staff) of written policies and procedures on the use of restraints, based on the recognition that the unique healthcare needs of women and girls are not addressed by most correctional policies.
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Using Cost-Benefit Analysis for Justice Policymaking
Tags: National | Fiscal Issues and Funding | Positive Youth Development and Strengths-Based Programming | Reports | Research
The Vera Institute for Justice convened a working group of researchers and policymakers to help advance the use of rigorous cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in decisions about criminal justice programs and policies.
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Just Learning: The Imperative to Transform Juvenile Justice Systems Into Effective Educational Systems - Executive Summary
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Correctional Education | Reports | Research
Exec. summary of Southern Education Foundation survey of the educational provisions of Southern youth justice facilities. The data shows that both state and local juvenile justice systems are failing profoundly in providing adequate, effective education in the South and the nation.
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Just Learning: The Imperative to Transform Juvenile Justice Systems Into Effective Educational Systems
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | General System Reform | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports | Research
This study by the Southern Education Foundation surveys the educational provisions of Southern youth justice facilities. The data shows that both state and local juvenile justice systems are failing profoundly in providing adequate, effective education in the South and the nation.
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Juvenile Defense Attorneys: A Critical Protection Against Injustice The Importance of Skilled Juvenile Defenders to Upholding the Due Process Rights of Youth
Tags: National | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | Reports | Partner Publications
This white paper from the National Juvenile Defenders Center, a member of the Models for Change Resource Center Partnership, details the role of the juvenile defender in the youth justice system.
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How Educators Can Eradicate Disparities in School Discipline: A Briefing Paper on School-Based Interventions
Tags: National | Deinstitutionalization | Reports
This National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) research brief examines states' role in monitoring conditions and outcomes for youth involved in the justice system. It is part of an 8 part series from NCCD on deincarceration in the U.S. youth justice system.
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Stakeholders' Views on the Movement to Reduce Youth Incarceration
Tags: National | Deinstitutionalization | Reports | Research
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Study Methods for the NCCD Deincarceration Project
Tags: National | Deinstitutionalization | Reports | Research
This National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) paper explains NCCD's research methodology for its 8 part series on deincarceration in the U.S. youth justice system.
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Using Bills and Budgets to Further Reduce Youth Incarceration
Tags: National | Deinstitutionalization | Reports | Research
This National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) research brief explores how to leverage fiscal concerns to reduce youth incarceration. It is part of an 8 part series from NCCD on deincarceration in the U.S. youth justice system.
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Advancing the Quality of Cost-Benefit Analysis for Justice Programs
This paper from the Vera Institute for Justice explores the methodological challenges to performing cost-benefit analyses of justice-related investments.
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Blueprint: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Domestic Sex Trafficking of Girls
Tags: National | Girls | Research
The report stems from the conference Human Rights Project for Girls co-hosted with Georgetown's Center on Poverty and Inequality last year titled, "Critical Connections: A Multi-Systems Approach to the Domestic Sex Trafficking of Girls." This is a groundbreaking analysis on the ways in which girls are at the dangerous intersection of child welfare, juvenile justice, and CSEC--and highlights the innovative programs that are serving them in an effective, multidisciplinary manner.
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Dual Status Youth: Technical Assistance Workbook
Tags: National | Crossover and Dual Jurisdiction Youth | Reports | Research
This Technical Assistance Workbook to provide practical guidance for state and local jurisdictions in their endeavor to improve the outcomes for dual status youth and families and to enhance system performance among the critical youth- and family-serving agency partners.
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Guidebook for Juvenile Justice & Child Welfare System Coordination and Integration
Tags: National | Reports | Research
CWLA and RFK Children’s Action Corps developed this guidebook to help state and local jurisdictions determine how they might achieve useful integration and cooperation between their child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Direction in this guidebook is based on research, evidence-based practice, and the experiences of other jurisdictions.
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A House Divided No More: Common Cause for Juvenile Justice Advocates, Victim Advocates, and Communities
Tags: National | General System Reform | Victims | Restorative Justice | NJJN Publications
This policy paper argues for ending the divide between youth justice reformers and crime victims' advocates; explores the false divide between "offenders" and "victims" and other misperceptions about who is most often harmed by crime, and how to hold youth accountable in age-appropriate ways while doing a better job of serving the people they have harmed.
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CIVIL RIGHTS DATA COLLECTION - Data Snapshot: School Discipline
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports | Research
The Civil Rights Data Collection branch of the U.S. Department of Education's latest (2014) data snapshot regarding civil rights and school discipline.
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Restorative Practices: Fostering Healthy Relationships & Promoting Positive Discipline in Schools
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Restorative Justice | Research | Web-Based Tools
The Advancement Project's toolkit for implementing restorative practices in the classroom.
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Helping Families to Support their LGBT Children
Tags: National | LGBTQ Youth | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Reports
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released this practitioners' guide to helping families support their LGBT children.
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Discipline Disparities Series: How Educators Can Eradicate Disparities in School Discipline: A Briefing Paper on School-Based Interventions
This paper in the Discipline Disparities Series goes over interventions that educators can make to eliminate disparities in school discipline.
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Discipline Disparities Series: Eliminating Excessive and Unfair Exclusionary Discipline in Schools Policy Recommendations for Reducing Disparities
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Research
This section of the Discipline Disparities Series offers policy suggestions for reducing excessive and unfair disciplinary practices in schools.
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Discipline Disparities Series: New and Developing Research on Disparities in Discipline
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline
The Discipline Disparities Research to Practice Collaborative, within a national context of troubling disparities and promising solutions, has used information from stakeholder groups, as well as knowledge of the current status of research in the field, to craft this series of informational briefs and supplementary research papers with targeted recommendations customized for different audiences. This piece is concerned with new research in the field.
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Overview: Discipline Disparities
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Research
The Discipline Disparities Research to Practice Collaborative, within a national context of troubling disparities and promising solutions, has used information from stakeholder groups, as well as knowledge of the current status of research in the field, to craft this series of informational briefs and supplementary research papers with targeted recommendations customized for different audiences.
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Executive Summary: Discipline Disparities
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports | Research
The Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative's three-part Disciplinary Disparities Briefing Paper Series about disparities in school removal and research based interventions, conducted by a national group of researchers, educators, advocates and policy analysts, and funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and Open Society Foundations.
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OJJDP Bulletin: Delays in Youth Justice
Tags: National | General System Reform | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | Research
This bulletin from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention summarizes Jeffrey Butts' thorough research analyzing the causes of court processing delays in the juvenile justice system, and drawing on examples of successful models to reduce these delays.
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OJJDP Bulletin: Young Offenders - What Happens and What Should Happen
Tags: National | Youth in the Adult System | Research
This bulletin examines policies that affect young offenders who cross over from the juvenile to the criminal justice system.
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A Comparison of Risk Assessment Instruments in Juvenile Justice
Tags: National | Risk Assessment and Screening | Reports | Research
This report from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency compares risk assessment instruments used in youth justice.
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Girls, Status Offenses, and the Need for a Less Punitive and More Empowering Approach
Tags: National | Girls | Partner Publications
This report from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice describes the ways in which gendered expectations of girls lead to more arrests for status offenses than for boys, and summarizes approaches to dealing with girl status offenders that are effective and empowering and divert girls away from the court system.
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Pregnancy and Child-Related Legal and Policy Issues Concerning Justice-Involved Women
Tags: National | Girls | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Reports
This publication from the National Institute of Corrections provides an overview of pregnancy- and child-related legal questions concerning justice-involved women that can be raised in correctional settings.
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Juvenile Arrests 2011
Tags: Federal | National | Crime Data and Statistics | Reports
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) compiled this bulletin drawing together data on youth arrests for the year of 2011.
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Staff Responses to Organizational Change
Tags: New York | National | Deinstitutionalization | General System Reform | Reports
This report details the effects of juvenile justice facility reform and deinstitutionalization on the ground, drawing from research about facilities in New York. This report seeks to educate policymakers and advocates about the effects of reforms on young people and staff. It examines why some staff members and their unions so strongly resist deinstitutionalization, and what the impact of reform practices and policies are on the individuals who live and work in the facilities.
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State Trends: Legislative Victories from 2005-2010, Removing Youth from the Adult Criminal Justice System
Tags: National | Youth in the Adult System | Partner Publications
This publication from the Campaign for Youth Justice collects and summarizes legislative victories regarding the removal of youth from the adult criminal justice system from 2005-2010.
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State Trends: Legislative Victories from 2011-2013, Removing Youth from the Adult Criminal Justice System
Tags: National | Youth in the Adult System | Partner Publications
This publication from the Campaign for Youth Justice collects and summarizes legislative victories regarding the removal of youth from the adult criminal justice system from 2011-2013.
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The State of America's Children - 2014 Report
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Crossover and Dual Jurisdiction Youth | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Physical Health | Reports | Partner Publications
The Children's Defense Fund's annual report detailing the current status of multiple issues that affect children, including juvenile justice and youth incarceration.
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Toward Abolishing the Use of Disciplinary Isolation in Juvenile Justice Institutions: Some Initial Ideas
Tags: National | General System Reform | Positive Youth Development and Strengths-Based Programming | Evidence-Based Practices | Research
This paper makes the case for the abolition of isolation as a disciplinary practice in youth institutions. It outlines clear steps and practices that staff can take to reduce or outright abolish the practice, relying instead on more effective and humane disciplinary strategies.
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Better Solutions for Youth with Mental Health Needs in the Juvenile Justice System
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Risk Assessment and Screening | Evidence-Based Practices | Reports
This paper, from the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice and the MacArthur Foundation's Models for Change Initiative, discusses evidence-based practices for identifying and treating youth with mental health issues before they reach the youth justice system.
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Juvenile Competency Procedures
Tags: National | Reports | Research
Juvenile Competency Procedures
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Time for a Check-Up: How Advocates Can Help Youth in the Juvenile Justice System Get the Mental Health Services They Need
Tags: National | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | NJJN Publications
This policy update is an easy-to-understand resource to guide advocates through the Medicaid, CHIP, and ACA requirements they will need to understand to bring adequate mental health services to youth in the juvenile justice system. (Photo: Flickr member Nicolas Raymond, under Creative Commons license.)
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Polling on Public Attitudes About the Treatment of Young Offenders, National Juvenile Justice Network
Tags: National | Public Opinion and Messaging | Reports | NJJN Publications
Paper summarizing the findings from several recent polls. Polls show that the general public: believes that rehabilitation and treatment can reduce crime AND is willing to pay extra taxes to provide those services; supports rehabilitation even for young people who commit violent crimes; opposes young offenders being sent to adult criminal court without an individual determination made in each case; agrees that non-white youth are more likely than white youth to be prosecuted as adults; and believes strongly in a separate juvenile justice system.
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Functional Impairment in Delinquent Youth
Tags: Illinois | National | Detention | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Reports
OJJDP bulletin that examines the results of the Northwestern Juvenile Project - a long-term study of youth detained in a Chicago area detention facility. The bulletin addresses youth functional impairment in the school, work, home, and community settings; and in terms of behavior toward others, mood and psychiatric concerns, self-harm, substance use, and rational thought assessed 3 years after the youth were released from detention.
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The Comeback and Coming-from-Behind States: An Update on Youth Incarceration in the United States
Tags: California | Connecticut | Illinois | Missouri | Mississippi | Nebraska | New York | Ohio | South Dakota | Texas | Washington | Wisconsin | Wyoming | National | Deinstitutionalization | NJJN Publications
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A Generation Later: What We've Learned about Zero Tolerance in Schools
Tags: National | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Reports
The Vera Institute's Center on Youth Justice has recently released a report titled, "A Generation Later: What We've Learned about Zero Tolerance in Schools." The report examines research that has investigated "zero tolerance" school discipline policies that rely heavily on suspension and expulsion to respond to student misbehavior. The research indicates that not only have schools not become safer under these extreme policies, they may in fact have the opposite effect.
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From Courts to Communities: The Right Response to Truancy, Running Away, and Other Status Offenses
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Family and Youth Involvement | Status Offenses | Reports
This report from the Vera Institute of Justice makes policy recommendations regarding truancy and other status offenses that emphasize family-supported and community-based solutions in place of court referrals.
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National Standards for the Care of Youth Charged with Status Offenses
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Family and Youth Involvement | Status Offenses | Reports | Partner Publications
This publication from NJJN partner the Coalition for Juvenile Justice sets out principles and standards for responding to status offenses in the U.S.
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And Justice For Some: Differential Treatment of Youth of Color in the Justice System
Tags: National | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Reports
This report from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency tracks disparate treatment of youth of color at every stage of the justice process--from police practices through confinement.
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Law Enforcement’s Leadership Role in the Advancement of Promising Practices in Juvenile Justice
Tags: National | General System Reform | Research
The goal of this project is to increase the leadership role of state and local law enforcement executives to effectively address systemic juvenile justice issues as well as improve local responses to juvenile offenders. The initiative focuses on the potential for police leaders to have a stronger role in juvenile justice system issues and is providing information and training to the field of law enforcement, accelerating progress towards more successful outcomes for youth, families, and communities.
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Vision 21: Transforming Victim Services
Tags: National | Victims | Reports
The Office for Victims and Crimes at the Office developed this resource as a guidebook for a more comprehensive, systemic approach to addressing the needs of crime victims.
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Arrested Development: Confinement Can Negatively Affect Youth Maturation
Tags: International | National | Brain and Adolescent Development | Deinstitutionalization | Reports | NJJN Publications
According to recent research funded by the John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation's Models for Change Initiative, incarceration can stymie young people's psychosocial maturation--meaning that youth who experience incarceration may be more impulsive and susceptible to negative peer influence upon release, increasing the risk of re-arrest.
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Trauma-Informed Approaches: Federal Activities and Initiatives
Tags: Federal | National | Girls | Reports
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) National Center for Trauma-Informed Care assisted the Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention with this report on trauma-informed approaches for women and girls. The report documents the scope and impact of violence and abuse on women and girls and highlights gender-responsive, trauma-informed approaches that more than three dozen federal agencies, departments, and offices have implemented. The report encourages other governmental and nongovernmental agencies to adopt a cross-sector, interagency, intersystem recognition of and response to trauma.
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Alone and Afraid - Children Held in Solitary Confinement and Isolation in Juvenile Detention and Correctional Facilities
Tags: National | Institutional Conditions | Reports | Partner Publications
This paper documents how solitary confinement, often referred to as room confinement in the juvenile facilities context, can cause extreme psychological, physical, and developmental harm. As the report makes clear, juvenile facilities have been locking kids in physical and social isolation for days, weeks, and even months. Our priority should be protecting kids, helping them grow into productive and healthy adults.
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Performance-Based Standards: Reducing Isolation and Room Confinement
Tags: National | Institutional Conditions | Youth in the Adult System | Reports
This Performance-Based Standards report finds that isolation should only be used in extreme circumstances for youth, and even in those circumstances should be brief and supervised. This report outlines the harms that come to youth in isolation, and encourages the reduction of this practice.
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Performance-Based Standards: What Youths Say Matters
Tags: National | Institutional Conditions | Evidence-Based Practices | Reports
Research is mounting that shows youths’ experiences while in residential programs have a significant impact on both the safety and climate within the facility as well as whether the youth continues to commit crimes when he or she returns to the community. A recent analysis of the Pathways to Desistance Study added to the growing body of findings with two conclusions professionals can put into practice: 1) Youths who have generally positive experiences in custody are less likely to recidivate when released and 2) Surveying youths about their perceptions and experiences is a cost-effective means to reduce recidivism.
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Innovation Brief - Media Relations: Transforming a Crisis into an Opportunity for Reform
Tags: Pennsylvania | National | Reports
MacArthur Models for Change Innovation Brief on transforming a crisis into an opportunity for reform. The brief details how those at the Juvenile Law Center transformed the Luzerne Count, PA "kids for cash" scandal into meaningful youth justice system reform.
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National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention Releases Life-Saving Juvenile Justice System Resources
Tags: National | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Media
The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention's resources regarding suicide prevention in the youth justice system.
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Violent Youth Crime in US Falls to New 32-Year Low
Tags: National | Crime Data and Statistics | Reports
This report from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice finds that violent youth crime in the U.S. has fallen to its lowest point in 32 years.
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Changing Course: Preventing Gang Membership
Tags: National | Gangs | Reports | Research
This book, a collaboration between the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, details how community members, schools, and lawmakers--not only law enforcement officials--can help to steer young people away from gang membership. The research emphasizes a comprehensive, prevention-based approach to keeping youth out of gangs.
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Criminal: How Lockup Quotas and Low-Crime Taxes Guarantee Profits for Private Prison Corporations
Tags: National | Privatization | Reports | Research
Report discusses how prison bed occupancy guarantees in private prison contracts undermine criminal justice policy and democratic, accountable government.
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Policy Review and Development Guide: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender. and Intersex Persons in Custodial Settings
Tags: National | LGBTQ Youth | Administrative/Regulatory Policies
The National Institute of Corrections has released a policy review and development guide aimed at correctional administrators and staff, as well as medical and mental health personnel, to help them craft policies that account for the specific needs of LGBTI individuals in custodial settings.
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OJJDP Family Listening Sessions - Executive Summary
Tags: National | Family and Youth Involvement | Reports
This report summarizes the findings of four listening sessions with the families of system-involved youth held by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the Campaign for Youth Justice (CFYJ).
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Juveniles in Residential Placement, 2010
Tags: National | Crime Data and Statistics | Research
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) releases its report analyzing data on youth in residential confinement from 1997-2010. OJJDP organizes and analyzes this data based on factors such as overall population, state, gender, race.
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Measuring Success: A Guide to Becoming an Evidence-Based Practice
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Evidence-Based Practices | Reports
This Vera Institute guide provides a map of how juvenile justice reform programs--especially community-based alternatives to incarceration--become "evidence-based practices." The guide maps the basic steps creating and effectively utilizing process and outcome evaluations.
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Throwing children in prison turns out to be a really bad idea
Tags: National | Crime Data and Statistics | School-to-Prison Pipeline | Media
The Washington Post ran this blog article in June, 2013, following research that showed that youth incarceration lowers graduation rates and increases the likelihood that the affected youth will recommit as adults.
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The Comeback States: Reducing Juvenile Incarceration in the United States - NJJN, TPPF
Tags: California | Connecticut | Illinois | Mississippi | New York | Ohio | Texas | Washington | Wisconsin | National | Deinstitutionalization | NJJN Publications
Nine "comeback states" are featured for their dramatic reversal of youth incarceration rates in the past decade and for adopting policies that will promote further reductions.
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Nature and Risk of Victimization: Findings from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement
Tags: Federal | National | Institutional Conditions | Victims | Reports
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) released this bulletin on the nature and frequency of victimization of youth in residential placement. The study finds that there is an urgent need to create policy and implement programs to better prevent the victimization of youth in residential facilities.
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When Three's A Crowd: How Families Can Contribute to their Child's Defense
Tags: National | Family and Youth Involvement | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | NJJN Publications
NJJN summarizes the role of the defense attorney when the client is a youth and provides tips and resources for parents on how best to support their child and contribute to their child's case.
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10 Steps for Implementing Mental Health Screening
Tags: National | Mental Health and Substance Abuse | Risk Assessment and Screening | Reports
This tool offers 10 essential tips for juvenile facilities or agencies considering implementing mental health screenings.
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The Impact of Family Visitation on Incarcerated Youth's Behavior and School Performance
Tags: National | Family and Youth Involvement | Reports | Research
This study by the Vera Institute examines the effect of family visitation on the behavior and school performance of incarcerated youth. The researchers found that family visitation was associated with improved behavior and school performance, highlighting the importance of visitation to incarcerated youth's rehabilitation and success. The researchers recommend that correctional facilities adjust their visitation policies to promote more frequent visitation with families to improve social and familial support and increase these positive outcomes.
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A Multi-State Recidivism Study Using Static-99R and Static-2002 Risk Scores and Tier Guidelines from the Adam Walsh Act
Tags: Federal | National | Sex Offender Registries | Legislation | Reports | Research
This study seeks to examine important components of our nation’s sex offender tracking and monitoring systems, with a focus on risk assessment and sexual recidivism (measured by re-arrest). On average, we found that the recidivism rate was approximately 5% at five years and 10% at 10 years. AWA tier was unrelated to sexual recidivism. The findings indicate that the current AWA classification scheme is likely to result in a system that is less effective in protecting the public than the classification systems currently implemented in the states studied.
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Funding Community Based Supervision: Legislative Levers to Lock in Local Funding
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Fiscal Issues and Funding | Reports | NJJN Publications
When your state proposes to close youth prisons and have counties serve youth in trouble with the law in the community, how do you keep counties at the table? The Fiscal Policy Center's new tip sheet provides four examples of funding legislation that can help.
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Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails, Reported by Inmates 2011-12
Tags: National | Youth in the Adult System | Reports | Research
This Bureau of Justice Statistics report uses data gathered from interviews with prison and jail inmates to determine the prevalence of sexual victimization in prisons and jails. The report includes specific statistics on the incidence of sexual victimization among incarcerated youth, aged 16-17.
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Six Policy Priorities for Juvenile Defense: Why Juvenile Defense Doesn't End in the Courtroom
Tags: National | Juvenile Defense and Court Process | NJJN Publications
The National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC) recently released new standards for juvenile defense attorneys to improve the delivery of legal services to all indigent youth. NJJN's policy update highlights the areas where defenders and advocates can work toward systemic reform.
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Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach
Tags: Federal | National | Brain and Adolescent Development | Deinstitutionalization | Family and Youth Involvement | General System Reform | Status Offenses | Youth in the Adult System | Reports | Research
The National Research Council's report brief combines a summary of new research in adolescent developmental psychology with an evaluation of reigning policies in juvenile justice. Based on these materials, the NRC makes recommendations for juvenile justice policy reform.
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To Punish A Few: Too Many Youth Caught in the Net of Adult Prosecution
Tags: National | Brain and Adolescent Development | Racial and Ethnic Disparities | Youth in the Adult System | Reports | Research | Partner Publications
This 2007 report from the Campaign for Youth Justice highlights some of the consequences of prosecuting and detaining youth through the adult criminal justice system. The report explores the consequences of transfer for public safety, the costs of prosecuting youth as adults, the lengthy prison sentences faces by juveniles convicted as adults in states with strike laws, the developmental differences between children, teenagers and adults, the disproportionate representation of youth of color in both the adult and juvenile justice systems, and the incarceration of youth in adult detention facilities.
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Family Comes First: A Workbook to Transform the Justice System by Partnering with Families
Tags: National | Community-Based Alternatives and Supervision | Family and Youth Involvement | Reports | Partner Publications
This report, released by the Campaign for Youth Justice, is the first comprehensive analysis of current family engagement and family partnership practices in juvenile justice systems across the country and provides practical tools and resources for juvenile justice system practitioners invested in undertaking a family-driven approach to juvenile justice.
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Raised on the Registry: The Irreparable Harm of Placing Children on Sex Offender Registries in the US
Tags: National | Aftercare/Reentry | Family and Youth Involvement | Sex Offender Registries | Reports | Research
This Human Rights Watch report challenges the view that registration laws and related restrictions are an appropriate response to sex offenses committed by children. The report shows that such measures amount to continuing punishment for youth who commit sex offenses and in fact have a neutral or even negative effect on public safety by overburdening law enforcement with monitoring large numbers of people, undifferentiated by their dangerousness.
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Measuring Success: A Guide to Becoming an Evidence-Based Practice, Vera & Models for Change
Tags: National | Evidence-Based Practices | Reports
This guide, funded by the MacArthur Foundation as part of its Models for Change initiative, describes the process that determines whether a program qualifies as evidence-based and explains how programs can prepare to be evaluated.
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Campaign for Youth Justice Youth Justice System Survey, Gerstein Bocian, Agne
Tags: National | Public Opinion and Messaging
Summary of September-October 2011 poll conducted for the Campaign for Youth Justice on youth justice issues.
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Improving the Effectiveness of Juvenile Justice Programs: A New Perspective on Evidence-Based Practice
Tags: National | Evidence-Based Practices | Research
Meta-analysis of more than 500 controlled studies conducted by Dr. Mark Lipsey has identified the key characteristics associated with positive effects on recidivism for many of the types of programs already widely used in juvenile justice systems. A new tool based on those research findings defines concrete best practice guidelines that can be used routinely within a juvenile justice system to identify effective programs and improve those with the potential to be effective.
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Hidden Injustice: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth in Juvenile court
Tags: National | LGBTQ Youth | Reports
The Equity Project examines issues that impact LGBT youth throughout the duration of the juvenile court process, ranging from arrest through post-disposition. The goals of the Equity Project are to (1) Understand the needs, strengths, and experiences of LGBT youth involved in thejuvenile justice system; (2) Identify obstacles to the equitable treatment of LGBT youth in the juvenile justice system;(3) Recommend concrete strategies for promoting the equitable treatment of LGBT youth in the juvenile justice system; and (4) Educate juvenile justice system professionals through dissemination of policy andpractice recommendations and tools.
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Advances in Juvenile Justice Reform, 2007-2008, National Juvenile Justice Network
Tags: National | General System Reform | Administrative/Regulatory Policies | Court Decisions and Related Documents | Legislation | NJJN Publications
Compilation of legislative, judicial and administrative advances and new funding allocations that have led to the closure of large, harmful juvenile prisons; increases in programs that offer community-based alternatives to confinement; strengthened practice standards for juvenile defenders; and additional procedural and substantive protections for youth in and out of court. The booklet includes advances from states across the country sorted into substantive issue categories. Each advance is briefly summarized with a citation. Advances cited in the booklet may be found on NJJN’s Web site.
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Youth Who Commit Sex Offenses, NJJN Fact Sheet 2007
Tags: National | Sex Offender Registries | Reports | NJJN Publications
Fact sheet explaining differences between juvenile sex offenders and adult sex offenders.
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A Guide to Legal and Policy Analysis for Systems Integration
Tags: National | Crossover and Dual Jurisdiction Youth | Partner Publications
Reviews federal laws that apply to dual-status youth and provides instructions for improving cross-system coordination and services for these youth.
