Georgia at Work on Juvenile Justice Reforms for Next Year

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With technical assistance from the Pew Center on the States, a Georgia blue ribbon panel is studying the state’s juvenile criminal justice system, charged by the governor with recommending policy changes. “We’re not at the point of drafting anything yet. We’re still assimilating and gathering data, system driver data,” said state Court of Appeals Judge Mike Boggs, co-chair of the Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform. The 21-member council of mainly judges and attorneys was renewed by Governor Nathan Deal earlier this year to study and recommend policy for both the adult and juvenile justice systems.

Boggs was speaking at the end of the latest in a series of juvenile justice presentations by the Pew Center on the States, this time focusing on recidivism. Pew says its data suggests the best programs to fight recidivism find and focus on the most at-risk kids.

Still, a Promise of Reform for California’s Juvenile Justice System

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In January 2012, California Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a historic reform of the state juvenile justice system, the Division of Juvenile Facilities (DJF), by giving counties full responsibility for managing their offender population. This initiative, named Juvenile Justice Realignment, would have ended state intake of youth by 2013 and closed all facilities by 2015. The governor subsequently rescinded this proposal due to aggressive lobbying by state law enforcement associations. However, the promise of a more sensible juvenile justice system remains within the 2012-2013 state budget, signed into law in July. Some counties stand poised to take advantage of the opportunity; and in partnership with foundations, they are leading the way to a 21st century juvenile justice system.

Families of Incarcerated Youth Demand Say in ‘Dysfunctional’ System

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Jeannette Bocanegra, a community organizer from New York City, told a gathering of juvenile justice system practitioners and advocates in Houston last week that as a mom with a child who was incarcerated, “This system made me feel like I was a dysfunctional parent, a bad parent … without realizing I raised six other children who never went into the system.”

Now she and other members of Justice for Families, an advocacy group, are out to prove that, in her words, “We are not dysfunctional … the system is dysfunctional.”

Liane Rozzell, another parent on the panel, said afterwards, “We don’t have 24-hour remote control over our children.”

During the panel discussion, Rozzell said when her son was first put into detention she thought it might be a good thing, it would teach him a lesson. But she did not realize how negatively he would be affected by the experience. She also recalled being in a meeting where a teacher from a correctional institution off handedly mentioned sending kids to “an inherently violent place like a juvenile correctional center.”
After hearing that phrase, Rozzell said, “I was just stunned that we can just casually talk about sending our children to an inherently violent place.”

In June, Justice for Families will be releasing an in-depth report, underwritten by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The report includes results of a survey of 1,000 family members who have had children incarcerated and examines how families of the incarcerated are portrayed by the media. Justice for Families co-director Grace Bauer says family involvement and networking is necessary because, “No one knows what it is like to struggle with a child in the system better than another parent.”

However, according to Bauer, early findings from the report reveal, “Families are not consulted.

Supreme Court Prepares to Hear Health Care Reform Case, Young People Take to the Web

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For three days next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that will determine the fate of the health care reform law signed by President Obama two years ago. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act introduced a number of changes to how the health insurance industry operates and would cover more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Immediate changes include allowing adult children to remain on their parents’ insurance until they turn 27 as well as the elimination of yearly and lifetime coverage caps. More changes will be rolled out slowly until 2014, when the full law takes effect. But opponents argue one provision in particular is unconstitutional — the so-called individual mandate that takes effect in 2014 and requires most Americans to purchase health insurance or else face heavy fines.

Kelsey Smith-Briggs

An Advocacy Group’s Successful Approach of Strengthening Child Services Nationwide

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More than four-years after Children’s Rights, a New York-based non-profit, filed a law suit on behalf of nine children in Oklahoma, a settlement has been reached that will bring changes to the state’s child welfare system. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell approved the settlement reached between Children’s Rights and Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services in January. “There just has not been the funding to hit some of these critical needs,” Sheree Powell, communications coordinator for the state’s Department of Human Services, said. “We don’t control the purse strings, but it was understood in federal court that we’ll make good-faith efforts to improve everything within our control.”

Under the agreement, “specific strategies to improve the child welfare system” as it relates to 15 performance areas will be outlined, detailed and put into practice over the next four years. “We’re confident the settlement will result in better services and protection than foster children [in Oklahoma] currently receive,” said Marcia Robinson Lowry, Founder and Executive Director of Children’s Rights.

Report Names 5 Essential Principles for Georgia’s Juvenile Justice System

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A new issue analysis by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation takes a close look at the state’s juvenile justice system and indentifies five essential principles for policy-makers to “increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the system.”

The report, written by Jeanette Moll and Kelly McCutchen, says 50,000 youths are in Georgia’s juvenile justice system every year, either awaiting adjudication or serving their sentences. Those youth, the authors write, “represent the future workforce and citizens of Georgia.”

The five essential principles focus simultaneously on rehabilitation and cost cutting, including placing low-level offenders into the least restrictive placements such as non-secure facilities and home-based community programming that is between 35 and 70 percent less expensive than secure detention. According to the report, these options also keep low-level offenders away from youth who pose a real danger to society. The report also calls for a comprehensive analysis of each youth in the system as well as systematic responses that focus on the offender’s family. Another cost-cutting measure that the report says may deter future crime is to avoid formal processing for first-time and low-level offenders.

Apollo 13 Project Aims to Ease Transition for Former Inmates

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The United States incarcerates more adults than any other nation. But, how successful are we at ensuring those former inmates don’t return to prison after release? According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 60 percent of former inmates were rearrested within three years of release. Twenty-five percent of those returned to prison. A new initiative is working to reduce those numbers by finding ways to help former inmates successfully reenter society.

U.S. Immigration System is Broken, Says Latino Community Leader

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The U.S. immigration system is broken and not in line with the nation’s values, said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO), at an event Wednesday night. GALEO is a nonprofit organization seeking to increase Latino civic engagement. “We need to have a workable system that moves us forward and upholds our values,” he said. Addressing a small crowd of mostly Latino students at Kennesaw State University near Atlanta, Gonzalez said a top priority should be keeping families together. Under the current immigration system “some families have to wait 20 years to be reunited,” he said.

Judge Teske Gives Voice to Juvenile Justice Reforms on National Stage

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Regular JJIE contributor Judge Steve Teske was recently featured in The Washington Post for his crusade to end the school-to-prison-pipeline. The Post examines how Teske’s work to reduce schools’ referrals to juvenile court has gained a national audience.

Teske says zero tolerance policies have resulted in too many kids entering the juvenile justice system. In Teske’s opinion, “zero tolerance often means overpunishment for low-level misdeeds,” according to The Post. Because of that, he helped bring reforms to his home community of Clayton County, Ga., where Teske is chief juvenile judge. Since implementing the changes, juvenile crime has dropped, recidivism is down and graduation rates are up.

Teske, the story says, remains tough on crimes involving guns and drugs.

“The cases we have in court now are the burglars, the robbers — the kids who scare you, not the kids who make you mad,” Teske told The Post.

As Teske travels the country speaking about the need for reform, the success of Clayton County, The Post notes, is now inspiring communities in Connecticut, Indiana and Kansas, among others, to implement similar reforms.

And Teske is quick to point out his own teenage lapse in judgment, a school prank that today would have landed him in juvenile court. At 13, he pulled his school's fire alarm but his principal insisted the school handle Teske's punishment.

“Would I even be a judge today had I gone to jail that day?” he asked in The Post.

Juvenile Justice Reformer Allen Breed Dies at 90

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Juvenile justice reformer Allen Breed died last weekend at 90. Breed was the former director of the National Institute of Corrections and the California Youth Authority Allen Breed. In 1974, he was an important champion of the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Act. “He was a real force,” said John Wilson, former deputy administrator of the federal Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and a consultant with Institute for Intergovernmental Research. Wilson said Breed was a “straight shooter.”

Later, Breed led the board of directors of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for 10 years.