Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/author/jjie-org/page/15/)
Florida currently spends $2.4 billion annually on its criminal justice system. With the state’s criminal justice system operations being the third largest in the country, there are more than 96,000 Floridians in state prisons and another 166,000 under community supervision. We saw a 9% reduction in crime rates statewide in 2018, which is in line with Florida’s 48-year trend.
Jerel’s story is one of many tales of hate, anger, pain and violence that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth face daily. The same way this hate erupted into violence involving a gun for Jerel illustrates how easily this could happen for other LGBTQ youth.
In the early 2000s I had the privilege to serve as the administrator of the Pinellas and Pasco counties Juvenile Assessment Centers. For those of you not familiar with the JACs, their purpose is to serve as a one-stop shop for all juvenile services. The JACs provide law enforcement with a central point of contact for juveniles who have been arrested.
California has comprehensively strengthened its gun safety laws over the past 25 years and is now generally considered to have the strongest gun safety laws in the nation. Giffords Law Center, which evaluates the strength of state gun laws, affords California the top rank on its Annual Gun Law Scorecard. These legislative changes have been associated with significant declines in overall gun deaths and homicides at the state level.
While Florida has taken steps toward integrating trauma-informed practices in the juvenile justice system, the state needs to reconsider its treatment of youth. Notably, utilizing trauma-informed care in the juvenile justice system, while necessary, is not sufficient — prevention should be the goal, with trauma-informed services implemented in all child-involved systems. The state must also stop incarcerating children with adults and offer all juveniles in detention/incarceration access to trauma-informed services.
When we hear the words restorative justice, there is often a connection with the criminal justice system. But what if we brought “restorative” to child welfare and a civil legal system?
Formed in 2013 and established as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in 2014, the Florida Restorative Justice Association (FRJA) is the only entity in the state dedicated to supporting, strengthening and expanding Florida’s restorative justice practices (RJPs). In the last few years, the primary strategy to accomplish this task has been the creation of statewide conferences — one in Sarasota in September 2018 and one coming up in Broward County on Jan. 31, 2020.
The Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention reports that an average of 55% of youth released from incarceration are rearrested within one year of release while reincarceration and reconfinement rates during the same time frame averaged 24%. Juvenile reentry, which is also referred to as aftercare, is defined as the reintegrative services that prepare youth in out-of-home placements for their return home by establishing the necessary collaboration with the community and its resources to ensure the delivery of needed services and supervision.
Josmar Trujillo knows New York Police Department databases — facial recognition, DNA and, his crusade, the gang database. However, the database of juvenile fingerprints — illegally maintained and recently destroyed by the NYPD — was a new one for him. But, in the fight against big data policing, it was par for the course for Trujillo.
While serving as a juvenile diversion officer, I had the opportunity to see how we use community service in the juvenile justice system. When I stepped into this juvenile justice role, the county attorney instructed me of some basic requirements he wanted included in the diversion contract.