New York Times Editorial: The Right Model for Juvenile Justice

The October 28, 2007 New York Times carried the following editorial in support of juvenile justice: 

The Right Model for Juvenile Justice

With the prisons filled to bursting, state governments are desperate for ways to keep more people from committing crimes and ending up behind bars. Part of the problem lies in the juvenile justice system, which is doing a frighteningly effective job of turning nonviolent childhood offenders into mature, hardened criminals. States that want to change that are increasingly looking to Missouri, which has turned its juvenile justice system into a nationally recognized model of how to deal effectively with troubled children.

 The country as a whole went terribly wrong in this area during the 1990s, when high-profile crimes prompted dire predictions of teenage “superpredators” taking over the streets. The monsters never materialized. In fact, juvenile crime declined. But by the close of the decade, four-fifths of the states had made a regular practice of housing children, even those who committed nonviolent crimes, in adult jails. Studies now show that those children were considerably more likely to become serious criminals — and to commit violence — than children handled through the juvenile justice system.

But all juvenile justice systems are not created equal. Most children taken into custody are committed to large, unruly and often dangerous “kiddie prisons” that very much resemble adult prisons. The depravity and brutality that characterizes these places were underscored in Texas, where allegations of sexual abuse by workers prompted wholesale firings and a reorganization of the state’s juvenile justice agency.   Missouri has abandoned mass kiddie prisons in favor of small community-based centers that stress therapy, not punishment. When possible, young people are kept near their homes so their parents can participate in rehabilitation that includes extensive family therapy. It is the first stable, caring environment many of these young people have ever known. Case managers typically handle 15 to 20 children. In other state systems, the caseloads can get much higher. The oversight does not end with the young person’s release. The case managers follow their charges closely for many months and often help with job placement, therapy referrals, school issues and drug or alcohol treatment. After completing the program, officials say, only about 10 percent of their detainees are recommitted to the system by the juvenile courts.

A law-and-order state, Missouri was working against its own nature when it embarked on this project about 25 years ago. But with favorable data piling up, and thousands of young lives saved, the state is now showing the way out of the juvenile justice crisis.

Fate of Safe Harbor Act Hinges on One Word

The Safe Harbor Act came very close to passing the legislature this year, but was ultimately held up a by last-minute change in the Senate. This groundbreaking bill would stop the state from prosecuting and incarcerating children under age 16 for prostition charges and would create a range of community-based services for sexually exploited youth — including safe houses, crisis intervention and long-term housing. The Assembly bill states that the Court “shall” substitute a juvenile delinquency petition with a PINS (person in need of supervision) petition to ensure that sexually exploited youth will not be criminalized and held in secure detention. The Senate bill, changed the word “shall” to “may”, thus leaving open the possibility that some sexually exploited youth will continue to be treated as juvenile delinquents. The Coalition is calling on the Senate to pass the Assembly version of the bill in September, when the legislature is expected to reconvene for a special session.

Legislative Gazette: The Safe Harbour Act is Sunk

OCFS Ombudsman’s Office Staffing Up

For years, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) retained only one full-time person in the ombudsman’s office, which is responsible for monitoring conditions in the agency’s 31 residential facilities. Because of this ridiculously low staffing level, the ombudsman was only able to vist each OCFS facility once every two years. Thankfully, Commissioner Gladys Carrion has made it a priority to increase transparency and improve oversight at OCFS. She has hired Viola Abbitt as Director of the Ombudsman’s Office and had allocated funds so that the office can hire 9 additional staff members. In addition, OCFS is reconstituting an Independent Review Board, comprised of individuals outside the agency. The board will receive regular reports on grievances and complaints from youth in custody and will also have the authority to visit the facilities and initiate investigations.

Coalition Calls for Legislation to Redirect Detention Funding to Community Programs

The Juvenile Justice Coalition is calling on New York State to adopt “ReDIRECT New York,” a plan to amend Executive Law 530 to create a fiscal incentive for counties to shift spending from youth detention to effective alternative-to-incarceration programs. Under current practice, New York State reimburses counties 50% to operate local youth detention centers but does not provide a similar reimbursement for alternative-to incarceration (ATI) programs for court-involved youth. ReDIRECT New York proposes that the state create a higher state reimbursement for ATI programs in order to encourage counties to invest in these cost-effective programs.

JJ Coalition Working with OCFS to Improve Treatment of LGBT Youth in State Custody

In April, the Office of the Children and Family Services (OCFS) and the Juvenile Justice Coalition joined forces to form a working group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth in state facilities. OCFS Commissioner Gladys Carrion and Juvenile Justice Project Director Mishi Faruqee co-chair the group, which is currently revising the agency’s guidelines on good childcare practices for working with LGBT youth. The working group is also advising OCFS on the development of an anti-discrimination policy and training for staff on addressing homophobia within youth correctional facilities.

Join Us for a Forum on Raising the Age

On October 2, the Juvenile Justice Coalition will hold a forum, entitled “From Connecticut to New York: A Look at Raising the Age of Juvenile Court Jurisdiction.” Forum speakers will include advocates from Connecticut who led the state’s sucessful Raise the Age Campaign. Now that Connecticut has passed legislation to raise the age from 16 to 18, New York and North Carolina are the only two states that automaticaly treat all 16 and 17 year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system.

The forum will be Tuesday, October 2 from 4pm to 6pm, location TBA.

New York City Launches New ATD programs

After years of sustained advocacy from the Juvenile Justice Coalition, New York City has partnered with several non-profit organizations to create new alternative to detention (ATD) programs for pre-adjudicated youth in Family Court. The City is implementing these new programs in conjuction with a new risk assessment instrument (RAI) to help the Court to make more objective detention decisions for youth with pending delinquency charges. The Center for Court Innovation is operating the Queens ATD program, the Center for Community Alternatives is operating the Brooklyn ATD program. BronxConnect and CASES will run the Bronx and Manhattans sites respectively — which are expected to start up in the fall.