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The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Joint Center Health Policy Institute

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Title: The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Joint Center Health Policy Institute


1
The Joint Center for Political and Economic
StudiesJoint Center Health Policy Institute
  • Dellums Commission
  • Better Health Through Stronger Communities
  • Public Policy Reform to Expand Life Paths of
    Young Men of Color

2
The impact of waivers to adult court,
alternative sentencing, and alternatives to
incarceration on young men of color
3
Key Topics
  • Introduction
  • Historical Perspective and Literature Review
  • Key Themes
  • Models, Promising Practices, Solutions
  • Implications for Policy Change
  • Summary

4
Introduction
  • Presentation will address the issues concerning
    the
  • Impact of decisions to transfer young men of
    color from the juvenile justice system to adult
    criminal courts
  • Impact that alternative sentences, and
    alternatives to incarceration have on these
    youth.

5

Issues
  • Young men of African American, Hispanic / Latino,
    Native American heritage, along with Asians who
    come to the United States as refugees are
    disproportionately represented in every aspect
    of the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
  • Juveniles within the adult criminal justice
    system is one of the more challenging problems
    facing our community goals of having young people
    grow up to be citizens, i.e., responsible,
    contributing members of society. Their
    involvement in adult courts seems to reduce the
    likelihood of success towards citizenship
    aspirations.

6
Historical Perspective and Literature Review
  • Often we hear of pendulum swings in the justice
    system, referring to whether the current
    philosophy is more focused on treatment or
    punishment.
  • Many protections the juvenile justice system
    afforded children prior to establishment of the
    first juvenile court in 1899 have been legislated
    away, thus, reflecting political policy that
    pre-dates 1899.

7
  • In 1899, Illinois established the first juvenile
    court by enacting the Juvenile Court Act.
  • By the 1940s every state had a similar juvenile
    system.
  • Beginning in 1966 and into the 1980s, a series of
    United States Supreme Court decisions ordered
    many procedural requirements into juvenile court
    proceedings, significantly altering the operation
    of juvenile courts.

8
Key Themes
  • In April 2000, Building Blocks for Youth,
    published the second of five reports of a
    multi-year initiative funded to protect minority
    youth in the justice system and promote rationale
    and effective juvenile justice policies. Among
    the findings from this report are the following

9
  • In every offense category, a substantially
    greater proportion of African-American youth were
    detained than referred.
  • African-American youth were more likely than
    White youth to be formally charged in juvenile
    court, even when referred for the same offense.
  • Among all offense types, African-American youth
    were overrepresented and White youth were
    underrepresented in cases judicially waived to
    adult court.

10
Models, Promising Practices, Solutions
  • There has been much discussion and research on
    differences which exist between the cognitive
    capacities and capabilities of adolescents, as
    compared to adults.
  • In 1996, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
    Foundation funded juvenile justice practitioners
    to develop, and provide training which applied
    the findings of the adolescent development
    related research to practice issues confronted by
    juvenile court practitioners throughout the
    juvenile justice continuum. The training modules
    that were developed as a result of this
    initiative consist of six separate modules.

11
Modules
  • Module One Kids Are Different How Knowledge of
    Adolescent Development Theory Can Aid
    Decision-making in Court
  • Module Two Talking to Teens in the Justice
    System Strategies for Interviewing Adolescent
    Defendants, Witnesses, and Victims

12
  • Module Three Mental Health Assessments in the
    Justice System How To Get High Quality
    Evaluations and What To Do With Them in Court
  • Module Four The Pathways to Juvenile Violence
    How Child Maltreatment and Other Risk Factors
    Lead Children to Chronically Aggressive Behavior

13
  • Module Five Special Ed Kids in the Justice
    System How to Recognize and Treat Young People
    with Disabilities That Compromise Their Ability
    to Comprehend, Learn and Behave
  • Module Six Evaluating Youth Competence in the
    Justice System.

14
Implications for Policy Change
  • To raise a healthy child requires deliberate,
    consistent relationships with the child from a
    familial or systemic perspective. Every day good
    families prove this can be done. Unfortunately,
    we do not yet have a state, county, city, or
    community model to hold as the template to say,
    Just do what they are doing, and the kids will
    be OK.

15
  • In the meantime we must continue to proffer our
    ideals of what should be done, waiting for the
    day when some locality gets it right, or is so
    ordered (and funded) to do so by the legislature,
    or the courts. Since we are not there yet, some
    of what they and we need is as follows.

16

Suggested Policy Changes
  • Collaboration among all entities that provide
    services to youth.
  • Standards for program and cultural competence
    must be created, and courts must use these
    standards for holding service providers
    accountable.
  • The services recommended for the youth must be
    comprehensive.
  • These should be wrap-around services. No one
    agency can provide all that the youth and family
    needs.

17
  • The services should be community-based.
  • The service delivery system must address
    prevention, intervention and after-care.
  • The services must be for the youth and his
    family.
  • When juveniles are in facilities with adults they
    must be housed separately.
  • We need a research task force to further consider
    the implications of adolescent brain development
    on raising healthy children, from the perspective
    of this paper, within the context of the social
    and justice systems.

18
  • A complete reform of the school expulsion and
    zero tolerance policies.
  • There should be a think tank initiative on how
    the U.S. Supreme Court decisions on holding
    unconstitutional the execution of the mentally
    retarded, and persons under the age of eighteen
    represents a precipice for correctional reform.
  • Expand the range of options available for
    alternative sentences, and alternatives to
    incarceration.
  • Provide counseling, education, training and
    adaptive skills programs for youth in adult
    correctional facilities.

19
  • Restore voting rights for some felons after their
    punishment terms are completed.
  • Remove criminal histories from the records of
    some felons as a component of an intervention
    plan.
  • Develop incentives to have those on probation and
    parole complete those requirements earlier than
    allowed for in the case disposition.
  • Enact federal and state legislation, and provide
    funding to begin a longitudinal pilot program in
    one or more American cities and/or counties to
    begin this strategic, intentional, reform
    process.

20
Summary
  • It is important to explore and utilize methods
    that will help to reverse overrepresentation of
    youth of color in every aspect of the juvenile
    and criminal justice system.
  • It is also important, however, to consider some
    of the things we can, should, and must
    immediately do to hold the youth accountable,
    intervene and assist in remediating their lives,
    and demonstrate to them that others do care, and
    are going to hold them accountable,
    compassionately.

21
  • The services recommended for the youth must be
    comprehensive and these should be wrap-around
    services which address prevention, intervention
    and after-care.
  • Finally, the services must be for the youth and
    his family. We must no longer focus on the best
    interests of the child, but on the best interests
    of the family.

22
We can do less, but we should not. We must do
more, and we can.
23
Michael L. Lindsey, J.D., Ph.D.Nestor
Consultants, Inc.Dallas, TexasTelephone (972)
416-6656Fax (972)-416-8315mllind_at_swbell.netww
w.nestorconsultants.com
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