Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/racial-and-ethnic-disparities/)
Two months ago today, on Dec. 21, 2018, the Juvenile Justice Reform Act was signed into law. The bill served as the first update to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) in 16 years — a period long enough for millions of young people to age into and out of a dated juvenile justice system that had seen no major federal changes since 2002.
Congress reauthorized a key juvenile justice bill today, handing a win to youth advocates who have fought to update the legislation for more than a decade.
The House backed the Senate’s version of the bill Thursday morning, sending it to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign. The Senate unanimously approved a five-year reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) on Tuesday night using a fast-track procedure that requires the support of every senator.
Several states have announced they will continue collecting data on racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system, five months after Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator Caren Harp announced the agency is rolling back these reporting requirements. The announcements came in the chat box of an OJJDP webinar focused on federal data on girls in the juvenile justice system.
Over the last two decades, the juvenile justice system has been celebrated for driving a decline in the use of confinement as lawmakers and practitioners changed policies and practices to move away from costly and ineffective use of secure facilities.
The Trump administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) have instituted policymaking by erasure. These agencies are rolling back juvenile justice data collection, rescinding manuals on best practices and changing policy language.
The W. Haywood Burns Institute (BI) strongly rejects the disturbing and dangerous new policy direction of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) that insinuates that public safety is threatened by efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities (RED).