The JJIE Interview: Bart Lubow, the Man Behind JDAI

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More than two decades ago, when the Annie E. Casey Foundation began its groundbreaking Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), the notion that the juvenile justice system could and should reduce its reliance on detention was nothing short of revolutionary. Bart Lubow, director of the Juvenile Justice Strategy Group at Casey, designed and managed JDAI, which began in 1992. Lubow is retiring as of June 30, but he will continue to work with the foundation as a consultant and says he plans to do a lot of writing and speaking. JJIE asked Lubow, 66, to talk about his tenure and legacy at Casey, particularly JDAI, the nation’s most widely replicated juvenile reform effort, now operating at more than 250 sites in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Edited excerpts of the interview follow.

Obama Administration Unveils School Discipline Guidelines

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The Obama administration Wednesday unveiled sweeping national school discipline guidelines urging schools to remove students from classrooms for disciplinary reasons only as a last resort. “Unfortunately, a significant number of students are removed from class each year – even for minor infractions of school rules – due to exclusionary discipline practices, which disproportionately impact students of color and students with disabilities,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote in a letter to school stakeholders nationwide. For example, civil rights data from the 2011-12 school year show that African-American youths without disabilities were more than three times as likely as their white peers without disabilities to be suspended or expelled. Students receiving special education services, who represented 12 percent of all students in the country, comprised 19 percent of students suspended in school, 20 percent receiving out-of-school suspensions and 23 percent of students involved in a school-related arrest. And more than half of students involved in school-related arrests or referred to law enforcement were Hispanic or African-American.

Confronting Bias in the Juvenile Justice System

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Whether through “disproportionate minority contact” or unequal treatment in the juvenile judicial process, young people of color often face bias, panelists and audience members agreed Tuesday at a workshop at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s eighth annual Models for Change National Working Conference.

Center Aims to Keep Status Offenders Out of Courts

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In Calcasieu Parish, La., a one-stop “Multi-Agency Resource Center” under the Office of Juvenile Justice Services serves as a centralized intake point for families in need of services. Interventions like this are part of a growing effort to keep youths out of court for “status offenses” such as truancy, running away from home or drinking alcohol. Now there’s a vast new online resource for jurisdictions seeking alternatives to the courts for status offenses. The Status Offense Reform Center, launched Friday by the Center on Youth Justice at the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice, brings together step-by-step guides to the reform process, case studies from the field, advice from experts on handling status offenses, a huge online library and other resources.