Road Map to Juvenile Justice Reform

• NCJ Number: 231607
• Author(s): Douglas W. Nelson
• Date Published: 2008
• Length: 27 pages
• Corporate Author: Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Sale Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This essay identifies the failings of the current policies and practices of the Nation's juvenile justice system and proposes features of a "roadmap" for juvenile justice reform.

Abstract

The current juvenile justice system tends to ignore the well-established differences between youth and adults; engages in the indiscriminate, wholesale, costly, abusive, and ineffective incarceration of large numbers of youth; ignores the critical role of families in addressing delinquency; prosecutes minor cases in the juvenile justice system with minimal benefit to public safety; has become a "dumping ground" for youth who should be served by other public systems; and allows unequal justice to persist. In addressing these failings, the "roadmap" for reform proposes implementing developmentally appropriate policies and interventions that limit the number of youth transferred to adult courts while focusing on the development of cost-effective, needs-oriented, research-based services matched to individual needs. There should also be a reduction in the use of secure confinement of youth; only a minority of youth have offending histories that require secure confinement. This reduction in secure confinement should be replaced with a reliance on effective community-based services and supervision options for delinquent youth. Currently, few sites offer an integrated continuum of resources that ensure youth are placed in programs that improve the chances they will cease delinquent behaviors while developing positive behaviors, attitudes, and values. Youth for whom confinement is required to ensure public safety should be housed in safe, healthy constructive conditions of confinement. The "roadmap" to reform should also focus on strengthening and empowering families to help youth whose behaviors have brought them into contact with the justice system. Other features of the "roadmap" are the development of alternatives for keeping youth out of the formal justice system and practices that eliminate racial disparities in how youth are managed. 82 notes and appended data on each State's juvenile justice policies and contact persons