OJJDP national conference on youth justice reflects on progress, looks to future
The 2024 National Conference on Youth Justice celebrated the 50th anniversary of the landmark Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act and asked attendees what should youth justice look like over the next 50 years?
Hosted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, along with the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the three-day event held at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., from Nov. 19-21 attracted more than 2,400 attendees from every state and territory.
OJJDP’s first national conference since 2011 brought together youth and their families, grantees, tribal communities and representatives, leading researchers, practitioners, statisticians and other stakeholders who are working to transform juvenile justice. The conference offered more than 90 workshops, two plenary sessions and a variety of youth networking events all aimed at shaping the next 50 years in juvenile justice.
OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan urged conference attendees to take the reforms that have been accomplished over the past five decades and continue that momentum forward in the years to come.
“Our collective efforts to respond to the needs of youth and families is the best way to ensure justice and keep our communities safe,” Ryan said in her opening remarks on the conference’s first day.
Delivering a Continuum of Care
The National Conference on Youth Justice was centered around OJJDP’s Continuum of Care for Communities, which describes a framework for youth justice, including prevention, intervention and reentry programs.
Conference breakout sessions centered on how the continuum of care aims to prevent youth from entering or moving further into the juvenile justice system. Each session focused on how it applied within the continuum.
“By offering a continuum of care, we can support most youth from ever coming into contact with the juvenile justice system by meeting the needs of both youth and their families,” Ryan said.
Brent Cohen, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs, encouraged conference attendees to be inspired by the progress, innovations and reforms accomplished over the past 50 years.
“Now is not the time to roll back reform,” Cohen said in his remarks on the conference’s opening day. “Now is the time to press ahead and to insist on a juvenile justice system that supports and empowers our kids. This is the right way to do youth justice, and we are counting on all of you to carry us forward.”
Highlighting Emerging Leaders
OJJDP was intentional about ensuring that youth were involved in conference planning and throughout the event itself. Youth advisors provided insights as paid consultants that shaped the conference agenda, including the youth networking session, scholarships for attendees and the emerging youth leaders’ sessions designed specifically for young adults and lived experts.
Throughout the conference, OJJDP showcased experts with lived experience as plenary panelists, presenters and session facilitators. These experts shared the tools, strategies and perspectives they used to work toward positive change—not only for themselves—but for other young people.
On the first day of the conference, a panel of emerging leaders with lived experience discussed the importance of support systems and self-advocacy. They described how motivation drove them to change their situations because their worst mistakes did not define them.
“I like to say I found myself in a place where many become lost,” said Ronnie Villeda, an advocate for juvenile and social justice reform. “I found myself within those four walls because I did it in spite of the system. I was not going to allow the system to tell me what my worth was.”
Advancing Youth Justice
Bryan Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative – a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama – delivered the keynote address on the conference’s opening day.
Stevenson advocated for the advancement of youth justice, saying children are more than their worst acts.
“All children are children,” he said. “We cannot accept this idea that some children lose their status because of something that they’ve done.”
Stevenson described the concept of proximity, which involves building relationships with young people who are struggling to better understand their situations.
“When we make policies from a distance, we get the policies wrong,” he said. “You can’t make an effective policy if you don’t know the community you’re actually dealing with.”
Stevenson also addressed inequity in the justice system, challenging negative narratives, being truthtellers and working with justice-involved youth. He encouraged conference attendees to be hopeful for the future, stressing that hope brings meaning to youth justice.
“When we provide justice to young people, we provide justice to everybody. They are the future for the justice system,” he said.
The Impact of the JJDPA
The conference served as the capstone event for OJJDP’s year-long celebration of the 50-year anniversary of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.
Signed into law on September 7, 1974, the JJDPA is the most comprehensive piece of juvenile justice legislation ever passed by Congress. The Act created OJJDP and substantially revised existing federal laws along with agency responsibilities related to juvenile delinquency.
Under the JJDPA, states and territories are required to meet certain standards for how youth are treated in the justice system in order to receive federal funding for their juvenile justice systems.
One of the conference sessions outlined the history of the JJDPA and shared how states are benefitting from federal funding to improve their justice systems. Representatives from Maine and Minnesota discussed strategies to leverage federal support and provided examples of local community programs supported by federal funding.
OJJDP Senior Advisor Jill Ward explained to session attendees that there is a lot of latitude on how the funds can be used to serve children as long as states are in compliance with the four core requirements of the JJDPA.
“I love the fact that you can be really creative with these funds,” she said.
The Next 50 Years of Youth Justice
On the conference’s final day, Shawn Ginwright, Ph.D, and Jeremiah Brown joined the closing plenary to discuss the critical themes that will inform setting a course for the next 50 years of youth justice.
Ginwright, the Jerome T. Murphy Professor of Practice at Harvard Graduate School of Education, urged conference attendees to continue standing up for marginalized youth and advocating for an equitable justice system.
He stressed the importance of healing-centered approaches, which emphasize a young person’s racial and social identities, as well as their relationships and aspirations for the future.
Brown, a former NFL player and advocate for the Players Coalition – an athlete-led nonprofit advocating for social justice and equity, encouraged conference attendees to embrace transformational leadership over transactional leadership. He said serving youth must be a partnership.
“By honoring their voices and valuing their input, we pave the way for true transformation,” Brown said.
During the plenary, youth leaders introduced a call-to-action shaped by OJJDP’s Continuum of Care Framework to guide future reforms in youth justice.
The emerging leaders called for shifting the intent of out-of-home-placement from punitive to rehabilitative, increasing funding for gun violence prevention and education, working with the courts to reduce the severity of youth charges and more.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Congressional leaders also addressed conference attendees during the closing plenary, noting the importance of the 50th anniversary of the JJDPA, but recognizing that there's still work to be done.
In marking the 50th anniversary of the JJDPA, Garland thanked the juvenile justice advocates who shared their stories at the conference of working to protect children, heal families and strengthen communities.
He also reiterated the Justice Department’s commitment to evidence-based and comprehensive approaches that prevent youth violence and improve the outcomes for justice-involved young people.
“We do this because we believe that every child deserves to grow up free from violence," Garland said. “We believe that every person deserves to feel safe and be safe in their community.”
