Collaboration: Man in suit making a speech in front of a big audience

Opinion: Collective Decision-making Can Neutralize Politics of Fear

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(Series: Part 3 of 7)
Part 1: How Do We Make Youth Homelessness Effort Bipartisan? Part 2: America’s Biases Marginalize Youth, Drive Them to Homelessness
Judge Teske first used collective decision-making beginning in 2003 to reform his local juvenile justice system, which has netted an 80% decline in juvenile arrests. Most striking, however, is how it was employed at the statewide level in the Georgia juvenile justice reform effort to net a 57% reduction in youth committed to state facilities, which resulted in the closure of three secured facilities. 

Most striking is that juvenile arrests have declined 60% since 2008 and continued to fall following the enactment of the reforms.

The relevance of these outcomes is that they were influenced by reforms that are counterintuitive to the conservative majority in the Georgia legislature, and they were passed unanimously. This accomplishment was made possible using the collective decision-making approach that effectively depoliticized the policymaking process. Criminal justice reform is the best example of this because law and order issues are often politicized, especially by conservatives relying on a deterrence model of crime and punishment that emphasizes the severity of punishment (longer sentences) compared to the certainty of sentencing, which studies show are more effective. 

The history of crime and punishment in America is replete with politicizing rhetoric, mostly from conservatives, to influence the emotions of voters using emotional campaign slogans that are not supported by empirical evidence.

homelessness: Teenage girl sleeping on street, sitting against brick wall

Opinion: America’s Biases Marginalize Youth, Drive Them to Homelessness

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 (Part 2 of 7) | Read Part 1 here

Social psychology has found that someone may decide someone else's behavior has one of two causes: dispositional or situational. Dispositional attribution assigns the cause of behavior to some internal characteristic of a person — personality traits including attitudes, values and belief — rather than to outside forces. Situational attribution assigns cause of behavior to some situation or event outside a person's control rather than to some internal characteristic. Take, for example, those times when we feel compelled to explain a remark or conduct that offended someone. We tend to explain that our comment or act was influenced by something that happened earlier that day or what somebody else had said to deflect it from being seen as a flawed personality trait. 

But this is where the two attribution causes can be difficult to assign.

telehealth: Doctor with a stethoscope on the computer laptop screen.

More Telehealth Could Be Among Policy, Practice Implications of COVID-19 Pandemic

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In a remarkably short period of time, the COVID-19 pandemic has required us to change almost everything about how we live and work. It has also exposed significant fault lines in our understanding about, and delivery of services to, the most vulnerable in our communities. During this time, many of our systems have been challenged to handle complex crises and rapidly changing circumstances. Just as our health care systems have strained to meet acute medical needs, our education, justice, housing and child-serving systems are also navigating unprecedented challenges. Four Stoneleigh Foundation Fellows shared their preliminary observations on the impact COVID-19 is having on our communities’ young people in a virtual convening in spring.

teenage: Close-up shot of young woman in glasses writing notes with classmates studying in background.

Whatever Happened to the Teenage Shoplifter (and Vandal, Arsonist, Burglar, Joyrider)?

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More than anything else, property crime defines traditional concepts of “the teenager.” Vandalism, shoplifting, burglary, joyriding, arson, petty theft … all senseless things “dumb kids” do that jeopardize their futures and immiserate everyone’s lives.The teenage shed-torcher, windshield smasher, petty klepto, spray-painter and thrill-seeker whose anti-social destruction defies decency and reason infuriates adults to our core. It is no wonder crime scholars immersed in that era disparage “teenage brains.” 

In 1978, the first year California released comprehensive crime numbers by age, more than 130,000 youths were arrested for felony and misdemeanor property offenses. Back then, youths under age 18 accounted for a shocking 43% of all property offense arrests. 

Now, that whole species of “teenagers” as we knew it seems to have vanished. Property crime arrests of Californians under age 18, 1978-2018

In 2018, California’s teenaged youth population ages 10-17 was 1.1 million larger than 40 years earlier, Yet, fewer than 10,000 youths were arrested for all felony and misdemeanor property offenses — a 95% decline in the rate of juvenile property arrests. Youths now account for just 8% of California’s property-crime arrests. 

The most astonishing drop is among the youngest.

New Massachusetts Group PPAL Helping Families With Justice-involved Youth During Pandemic

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 In mid-March, everything changed because of COVID-19. One mom said her life changed in 24 hours. Her teenage son had been arraigned for his first offense. He was in detention, though not found guilty, with no option to be heard in court. The schools had closed, daycare closed and the juvenile courts were closed.

Advance Peace: 6 men sitting and standing in group at restaurant

Opinion: Advance Peace Change Agents Already Interrupting Epidemics Every Day

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Fresh shell casings are still scattered in the streets. Multiple sets of dice are still rolling like rocks in an avalanche. Bottles of liquor are still wet. Broken hearts with painful memories of gunshot victims remain fresh. Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the hood is still the hood.

Young blonde woman wearing yellow hat against orange wall background

Partnership Work By RFK National Resource Center Ramps Up in Seattle and Minneapolis

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The Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice convened critically important virtual conferences with juvenile justice leaders and practitioners in late June to start in King County (Seattle) and advance in Hennepin County (Minneapolis) our collaborative partnerships to address youth justice transformation on behalf of the youth and communities in those jurisdictions. Among other positive outcomes, these partnerships will provide excellent opportunities to measurably affect the over-representation of minority children and youth through real policy, practice and systemic change. During the pandemic, we have initiated or continued our dynamic, field-based, system transformation partnerships with 15 additional state or county jurisdictions across the United States and the territory of Guam — and we are making a real difference on behalf of youth, families and their communities. These include: Milwaukee County, Wis.; Cobb County, Ga.; Dutchess County, N.Y.; Clark County, Nev. (Las Vegas); and, Lancaster County, Neb.

probation: Man in pink T-shirt, jeans bumps fist with member of National Guard at protest.

Probation Leaders Need to Take These 5 Steps Now to Fight Racial Injustice

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America is reckoning with racial injustice. The days of protests in response to George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police — and the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and many others over the last several years — represent a turning point with implications for our entire nation, and especially for all of us involved in the justice system.

homeless: young man sitting beside fence with beer bottle

Opinion: How Do We Make Youth Homelessness Effort Bipartisan?

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4.2 million.

That’s the number of homeless youths in America every year. 

This opinion piece is about the 4.2 million, how and why we marginalize them, and what can be done to unmarginalized them. 

gun violence: Food delivery during coronavirus. Black courier guy wearing medical mask delivering grocery order to young woman's home

Opinion: We Need to Take Care of Each Other After COVID-19 Too

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The Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) in Richmond, Calif., is a non-law enforcement governmental agency whose sole purpose is to reduce gun violence using street outreach as a primary vehicle to deliver optimal and sustained gun violence reduction outcomes.