This blog that I came across on the website for the Coalition for Juvenile Justice discusses a recent reform of the juvenile justice system in Georgia, Hawaii, and Kentucky. The goal of this reform is to reduce the number of youth being sent to residential correctional facilities. Their focus is identifying the low-risk youth within the system and providing them with community based interventions rather that time in the facility. Judges will be implementing an assessment tool before sentencing the youth. There have already been better outcomes and lower costs found in Georgia, where they have already been able to shut down two correctional facilities. They also say that the majority of the voters say they are not concerned with whether juvenile offenders spend time or how much time they spend in a correctional facility, but instead that the system can intervene to prevent the offenders from becoming adult offenders. It is exciting to see that they are using evidence-based interventions and thinking.
This is the link to the video: http://www.juvjustice.org/blog/879
Betsy Leal, 1/31/15
Article in Journal of Family Violence 2013 "Systemic Self-Regulation:A Framework for Trauma-Informed Services in Residential Juvenile Justice Programs Question: Can we really change the punitive milieu of juvenile justice programs? This article is academic (long), not gonna lie. But it is a great read about how interactions between staff & youth can be changed by teaching self-regulation of emotions to staff, administrators, and youth, hence making systemic changes that increase the rehabilitative and decrease punitive atmospheres in juvenile justice programs. Great explanation for how trauma affects youth as well as how staff are vicariously traumatized & maintain PTSD symptoms in youth in their reactions and interactions.
ReplyDeleteHere's the link:http://www.traumacenter.org/products/pdf_files/Trauma%20Services%20in%20Residential%20Juvenile%20Justice%20Settings_Ford_Blaustein.pdf
I liked Betsy post. The video was short and informative and definitely great as a PSA. I liked what the woman in the video said: social services would take care of cases diverted from court on the front end which prevents kids from learning criminal behavior. No secret that detention centers teach Criminal Conduct 101.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is great! It is good to see that Georgia, Hawaii, and Kentucky are willing to take a chance on something new. Since this method has shown to have better outcomes and be lower in cost, I am hoping that this will start to catch on in other states. As mentioned in the video, many of the kids at correction facilities are not a risk to society, and all most of these kids need is a second chance and for someone to believe in them. I agree with that!
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