Title: The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Joint Center Health Policy Institute
1The 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
2The impact of waivers to adult court,
alternative sentencing, and alternatives to
incarceration on young men of color
3Key Topics
- Introduction
- Historical Perspective and Literature Review
- Key Themes
- Models, Promising Practices, Solutions
- Implications for Policy Change
- Summary
4Introduction
- 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.
6Historical 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.
8Key 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.
10Models, 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.
11Modules
- 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.
14Implications 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.
20Summary
- 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.
22We can do less, but we should not. We must do
more, and we can.
23Michael L. Lindsey, J.D., Ph.D.Nestor
Consultants, Inc.Dallas, TexasTelephone (972)
416-6656Fax (972)-416-8315mllind_at_swbell.netww
w.nestorconsultants.com