Implementing Juvenile Justice Reform The Federal Role (2014) / Chapter Skim
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3 Refocusing the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
3 Refocusing the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Pages 26-44
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From page 26... ...
It also has the dual purpose of addressing delinquency prevention as well as juvenile justice system improvements. OJJDP states that it accomplishes its statutory mandate through the provision of ".
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From page 27... ...
Juveniles held in adult jails or lockups in both rural and urban areas are not to have sight or sound contact with adult inmates, and any staff working with both adults and juveniles in collocated facilities must have been trained and certified to work with juveniles. • isproportionate minority contact: States are required to show that they are implementing juvenile D delinquency prevention programs designed to reduce the disproportionate representation of minor ity youth who come into contact with the juvenile justice system at all levels of processing -- without establishing or requiring numerical standards or quotas.
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From page 28... ...
294-296.) When OJJDP is reauthorized, it should be directed, as recommended by the 2013 NRC report, to base its programs and activities on the scientific knowledge regarding adolescent development and the effects of delinquency prevention programs and juvenile justice interventions; to link state plans and training of State Advisory Groups to the accumulating knowledge about adolescent development; to modify the definitions for "status offenses" and for an "adult inmate" so that all adolescents are treated appropriately; and to identify support for developmentally informed juvenile justice system improvement as one of the agency's responsibilities.
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From page 29... ...
FIGURE 3-1 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention appropriations in 2014 constant dollars. SOURCE: Adapted from National Research Council (2013, Figure 10-1, pp.
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From page 30... ...
Missing and Exploited Children 69,860 65,000 67,000 67,000 Safe Start 4,141 0 0 0 Child Abuse Training for Judicial Personnel -- 1,500 1,500 1,500 Improving Investigation & Prosecution of Child Abuse 18,638 18,000 19,000 19,000 National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention -- 2,000 2,000 1,000 Children of Incarcerated Parents Web Portal -- -- -- 500 Girls in the Justice System -- -- -- 1,000 Community-Based Violence Prevention 8,283 8,000 11,000 5,500 Subtotal 345,283 262,500 279,500 254,500 State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) 12,425 4,500 6,000 6,000 Child Abuse Training for Judicial Personnel 2,071 -- -- -- Children Exposed to Violence -- 10,000 13,000 8,000 State and Local Subtotal 14,496 14,500 19,000 14,000 TOTAL OJJDP: 359,779 277,000 298,500 268,500 aEUDL is the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Program.
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From page 31... ...
350,000 300,000 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 0 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 Year Part B Formula Youth Mentoring and Earmarks Title V MCAA VOCA JABG FIGURE 3-2 Trends in Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention continuing funding streams in 2014 constant dollars, 1997-2014. SOURCE: Committee generated, data provided by Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
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From page 32... ...
Given that appropriations for the Formula Grants Program are declining, the agency has directed available funds toward sustaining some of its core research programs such as field-initiated research and evaluation, statistical data analyses, and its model programs guide. Second, OJJDP supports additional research using the directed program funds; this portfolio focuses on delinquency prevention and victimization, although a small proportion of these projects also relate to justice system issues.
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From page 33... ...
. OJJDP currently has authority to provide a range of functions in two statutory domains: delinquency prevention and juvenile justice system improvement.
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From page 34... ...
The answer to that problem is for federal policy makers to increase both the amount and proportion of the agency's appropriation that are available to the agency to carry out its core mission. Assisting states, localities, and tribal jurisdictions to align their juvenile justice systems and delinquency prevention programs with current best practices and the results of research on adolescent development and implementing developmentally informed policies, programs, and practices should be the agency's top priority under the JJDPA.
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From page 35... ...
The course content should cover topics such as the history of the juvenile court and juvenile justice system, including racial disparities; the history and current statutory authority of OJJDP; the best available research on adolescent development, including the relation between brain development and behavior; the hallmarks of a developmental approach to juvenile justice reform (see Box 3-3 and Chapter 2)
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From page 36... ...
OJJDP staff and the agency need to be positioned to use their knowledge of adolescent development to inform the goals and outcomes for the decision makers in the juvenile justice system. This should be accomplished by first ensuring that OJJDP staff internally achieve an expert understanding of the hallmarks of a developmental approach, the research implications for treatment of youths, and the best approaches for appropriately responding to youths, and then using that knowledge to shape the training and technical assistance OJJDP provides.
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From page 37... ...
• Providers of both training and technical assistance should be required to demonstrate mastery of the developmental approach; they must develop capacity not only to deliver a training curriculum but also to understand and be responsive to the needs of states, localities, and tribal jurisdictions in implementing system reforms.
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From page 38... ...
Long-term, intensive assistance has been arguably absent from the OJJDP approach in recent years. In addition, OJJDP's reliance on a pay scale for designated technical assistance providers that had not increased since the 1990s has undercut the agency's ability to partner with many of the best and most knowledgeable juvenile justice experts (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2014)
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From page 39... ...
. Many in the field see OJJDP as overly focused on grant and compliance monitoring, with staff largely viewed as grant auditors rather than potential partners in reform efforts.15 OJJDP's role in enforcing compliance with the core protections from the JJDPA appears to consume significant staff resources, despite the fact that compliance rates are in the mid-90th percentiles and the agency has limited ability to bring the few noncompliant states into compliance (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2012)
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From page 40... ...
Jurisdictions from across the country engaged in this strategy with support and guidance provided by OJJDP. IMPROVING DATA AND PROMOTING USEFUL RESEARCH The 2013 NRC report expressed concern about the lack of consistent data on numerous juvenile justice issues and recent reform efforts.
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From page 41... ...
OJJDP is the only agency that is positioned to promote the needed consistency across localities. Recommendation 3-3: OJJDP should take a leadership role in local, state, and tribal jurisdictions with respect to the development and implementation of administrative data systems by providing model formats for system structure, standards, and common definitions of data elements.
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From page 42... ...
These efforts would focus on specific and delimited questions about how the juvenile justice system interacts with school, families, and service providers to promote delinquency prevention and intervention efforts that coordinate resources among these sectors to reduce entry into the juvenile justice system, limit that involvement, or prevent re-offending. To determine how to do this, OJJDP can pursue three activities to develop a focused research portfolio to support system reform efforts.
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From page 43... ...
It would thus be a large step toward a more scientific approach to juvenile justice and delinquency research. Third, OJJDP could advance research initiatives in the juvenile justice field by promoting data uniformity among researchers.
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From page 44... ...
OJJDP staff should develop an outreach and deployment strategy beyond the State Advisory Groups to include partner agencies and organizations at the federal level and affiliated national organizations (see Chapters 4 and 5) and to ensure that these key partners understand the basis for reform policies, are aware of the partnership opportunities for improving the juvenile justice system, and assist with the dissemination of this information to the key decision makers within their networks.
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