Taking on Transformation is a project of Catalyze Justice and the Columbia Justice Lab’s Youth Justice Initiatives. It is a hub for system leaders, and anyone making decisions about youth justice, who are pushing for real transformation of the youth justice system.
This topic explores why transformational change must begin with acknowledgement of institutional racism and past and current racial disparities, and a concerted effort to rectify.
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Shifting resources to communities involves a comprehensive review of how funding is being used and working with youth, families and their communities to develop a continuum of community-based services and supports.
This module includes information from two chapters focusing on how to shift resources to communities through creating a continuum of community-based services and finding funding sources.
Currently, the youth justice system relies heavily on incarceration which does more harm than good to youth and their communities. Stakeholders worry that there are no alternatives to youth prisons that protect public safety, hold young people accountable and provide services that will support young people who have caused serious harm in ceasing this behavior. It is important to address these concerns while also acknowledging the harm the youth justice system has had on youth and their communities. In order to create change, systems must shift resources from institutional settings to community-based services and supports. By using jurisdictions that have already begun to make this shift as a guide, system leaders can work to develop community-based services that meet the varying needs of young people who are involved in the justice system.
A critical step in this process is finding ways to align financial resources with the goals of transformation. In order to do this, system leaders must create a vision that is ambitious yet specific, match varying costs to federal, state and local funding sources, and develop plans to realign existing funding sources to support the new vision. Through assessing the needs, strengths and opportunity gaps for young people and their families, systems can identify programs and supports to which funding should be allocated. This may look like ensuring funds currently used in the formal justice system are reinvested in community-designed services that support both young people and their communities. While this may seem challenging, several states have already revealed the feasibility of capturing saved dollars and reinvesting them in communities.
Indicators of significant progress toward replacing youth prisons through the creation of a continuum of care.
These steps provide specific guidance for how to replace youth prisons with a continuum of community-based services and supports. All of these steps are central in youth justice system reform, and can be implemented concurrently.
Learn about how to develop an ongoing staff review team with membership from staff at every level of the agency to facilitate organizational culture change.
Learn about how to how to structure and utilize
system assessments to advance system transformation.
Learn about the different types of analyses that can be useful tools in examining current practice, understanding changes and trends in practice. .
Take a look at some tips and notable examples of places working to shift resources to communities and develop a continuum of community-based services and supports.
Diversion Services, in lieu of arrest, prosecution and detention. To provide the greatest opportunity for youth to thrive in their own communities, reduce the entry of young people into the system and eliminate unnecessary incarceration, youth justice systems should create multiple opportunities to divert youth from the system completely, particularly at the earliest stages.Research across jurisdictions demonstrates that young people are incarcerated and subjected to other punitive controls even for minor offenses when the system easily could have responded with a diversion program were it available or utilized.
Many jurisdictions have demonstrated effective options for diversion across the system. Examples of diversion programs and opportunities that have been used by jurisdictions across the country are listed below. System leaders should turn to young people themselves, their families and community leaders for help in designing and implementing effective, locally-tailored diversion services.
Police warn youth and/or inform parents/guardians of an incident without formal arrest, and release the young person to a parent/guardian.
Pre-arrest diversion, such as Florida’s Civil Citation initiative, which files no formal charges with court for first-time misdemeanors. Youth may be required to do community service hours to avoid charges being filed subsequently.
Prosecutorial diversion, such as the Wayne County, MI (Detroit) Right TRAC program, which partners with community-based providers to divert youth who are assessed to be “low-risk” from the youth justice system, while addressing needs, holding youth accountable and repairing harm caused to family, victims and community. Additional examples of prosecutorial diversion programs from around the country can be found on Fair and JustProsecution’s youth justice issue brief.
Diversion to other systems, recognizing that young people who are homeless, have mental health needs, are abused or neglected, have traumatic stress disorder and/or have experienced human trafficking should be diverted away from youth justice to systems that are better designed to meet their specific needs.
Youth courts—informal forums where young people play a role in responding to offenses committed by their peers as an alternative to formal adjudication. Youth courts or teen courts can be found all across the country with a variety of structures and formats. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has a literature review on the subject from their Model Programs Guide.
Restorative justice programs, such as Restorative Response in Baltimore,MD, which provide diversion from the justice system, either before any delinquency allegations are processed or post-adjudication, as an alternative to formal court-ordered services or sanctions. As experience with restorative justice has continued to grow its potential as an approach to even quite serious offenses, including those that resulted in grievous harm, is increasingly recognized. Other examples include Common Justice and Impact Justice.
Ideally, any out of home placement will be with a supportive family. Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Adolescents (MTFC-A)—sometimes referred to as Treatment Foster Care Oregon—is an evidence-based, short-term foster care program specifically designed for adolescents who are justice system involved. MTFC-A has been implemented in over 100 locations nationally and internationally. This program supports foster parents in meeting the special needs of young people who have been involved with the youth justice system, as well as supporting the young person’s family in preparing to bring the young person home. This simple yet uncommon element—ensuring a successful transition from placement to home by working intensively with the family and young person from the first day of placement—is essential for all forms of out-of-home placement.
Close to home (C2H) is an initiative created to reform the New York City’s juvenile justice system, ending the use of state youth prisons that are outside the city and limiting the use of incarceration overall. It primarily expanded community-based, non-residential home-like facilities as an alternative to incarceration for youth sentenced to out-of-home placement. This has helped youth stay close to their communities and connected to their families. The initiative supports youth in their transition back into their communities after release to aid them in becoming successful, productive adults. At the heart of the success of C2H were the local agencies and organizations dedicated to providing better outcomes for youth, their families and their communities while enhancing public safety.
Read more about Close to Home in New York in the Columbia Justice Lab’s report: Moving Beyond Youth Prisons
This panel brought together a group of experts to discuss ways that youth justice systems can shift resources, especially financial, to community-led and -owned supports for young people.
This discussion covered both the why and the how of having the most impacted youth and families leading transformation.
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National Youth Partnership Strategist,
Youth First Initiative
New Mexico Youth Justice Coalition
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Executive Director,
New Jersey Parents Caucus
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Administrator,
Pierce County Juvenile Court
Kathy Wright, Executive Director of New Jersey Parents Caucus, talks about the need to learn about the impact of the system directly from young people who experienced it and to trust them to lead if we are to create change.
Xiuhtecutli (Xiuy) Soto of the New Mexico Youth Justice Coalition speaks about how transforming youth justice begins with having patience with, providing support for, and relating to young people like him.
TJ Bohl, Administrator at Pierce County Juvenile Court, on some of the cultural obstacles inside the system to collaborating with communities, and the need for system leaders to overcome defensiveness to building a path forward together.
Explore some useful resources for Shifting resources to communities and developing a continuum of community-based services and supports.
