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New Approaches to Juvenile Crime
Solutions for curbing juvenile delinquency are as diverse as the problems of the kids who wind up in the juvenile justice system. Community groups and probation departments across the country are coming up with new and creative ways to foster better organization and greater fairness. Specialized juvenile drug and domestic violence courts are being created to help get closer to the root causes of kids' problems. Peer courts involve other youth in the sentencing of juvenile offenders, and restorative justice programs bring offenders and victims together. Here are some examples of counties that got serious about reforming juvenile justice and are seeing results.
Island Youth Programs, Galveston, Texas
Island Youth Programs approached its youth violence and delinquency problems collectively. Greater collaboration among the city's police, recreation department, schools, community groups and mental health professionals eliminated duplication of efforts and created new programs to fill gaps in existing services. In just five years, the collaborators helped decrease youth arrests in Galveston by 65 percent and lower violent offenses among youth by 78 percent. The city's 1999 juvenile arrest rate was its lowest in a decade. Island Youth Programs includes a new violence prevention curriculum for the city's elementary schools, a peer court, a truancy program, mental health screening and an intensive home-based counseling service for needy families. Youth participation in the city's recreation programs has doubled, and truancy cases and the school dropout rate have been cut in half.
Santa Cruz County Probation Department, Santa Cruz, California
In an effort to reduce overcrowding and disproportionate confinement of Latino youth, Santa Cruz County volunteered to participate in a federal program aiming to lower juvenile populations in custody. With support from the National Juvenile Detention Association and the Youth Law Center, the county re-examined its admissions, screening and assessment. It also streamlined court processes and looked at creating new alternatives to detention. The county combined several such alternatives: home probation, daily visits from probation officers, electronic monitoring (in which youth wear an ankle bracelet), and community-based services such as 12-step meetings and supervised outings. The results were unprecedented -- more than 95 percent of youth attended all hearings and did not commit new offenses during the court process. The county has reduced its overall population of detained youth by at least 40 percent, and the number of Latino youth confined dropped 18 percent. The average length of stay at the Santa Cruz juvenile hall is about 10 days, compared to the state average of 27 days. The county also prides itself on its efforts to keep children with their families, and it has one of the lowest out-of-home placement rates in the state.
Cook County Juvenile Probation Department, Chicago, Illinois
Early in the 1990s, Cook County, Illinois, had a juvenile justice system that fostered very little collaboration between city agencies and the community. It had few alternatives to detention and was notorious for an arbitrary admissions process and an increasingly overcrowded juvenile facility. But today, after a serious overhaul of the probation department, the county is seen by policymakers nationwide as a major turnaround story. The county started its reform efforts by creating new screening criteria and by developing more than seven new alternatives to detention. The daily population count dropped by more than 50 percent. Court no-shows declined as well when the county dramatically shortened the time between arrests and follow-up court dates for juveniles. With a new placement calendar, the department also expedited youths' return to the community and their transfer to other residential facilities. Another Cook County innovation is to place evening reporting centers in the neighborhoods where kids live. These centers provide supervision and services during hours when youth are more likely to be arrested.
Wraparound Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The 8-year-old Wraparound Milwaukee program supports more than 600 seriously emotionally disturbed youth, many of whom are referred by the county's juvenile justice system. The program has been recognized by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department as one of the most promising wraparound programs in the country. The "wraparound" model literally surrounds the troubled child and family with support by providing individualized, comprehensive and community-based services -- usually with the aim of reuniting families or keeping them together. Wraparound Milwaukee assigns care coordinators who work in the home to develop a support network, including probation officers, teachers, neighbors and others involved in the child's everyday life. The family team meets often to help the child reach long- and short-term goals. Wraparound Milwaukee participants can also take advantage of in-home therapy, crisis intervention, vocational counseling, self-esteem programs, and even judo training, music therapy and transportation services. Wraparound Milwaukee has minimized out-of-home placements and the number of youth committed to psychiatric institutions.
Santa Clara County Probation Department, Santa Clara, California
While there are many adult mental health courts across the country, Santa Clara County is the first juvenile probation department to experiment with a specialized court that links needy juvenile offenders with a variety of psychiatric services. Every young person booked into the county's juvenile hall is screened for serious mental illness, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. Through this process, the department has discovered that more than one in five children in the system are mentally ill. Most kids who come through the 1-year-old court qualify for Program UPLIFT, an intensive wraparound program designed to keep youth in their homes and to provide comprehensive mental health services. The county hopes to reduce the number of repeat offenders through treatment of the mental illness underlying some youthsâ criminal behavior.
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