Pacific Juvenile Defender Center Web Site

PJDC is a regional affiliate of OJJDP’s National Juvenile Defender Training, Technical assistance and Resource Center. PJDC offers downloadable publications, training, and network to juvenile defense attorneys. Publications include sections of a guidebook, Improving Juvenile Defense Strategies: Strategies and Models for Reform, including detention reform, placement delay and dead time, strategies for addressing placement delay and dead time, advocating for juveniles with the media, education advocacy for delinquency clients, immigration issues for delinquency clients.

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Guidelines for Juvenile Information sharing

This online report outlines a course of action for States and local jurisdictions involved in efforts to improve information sharing among key agencies that work with at-risk youth and juvenile offenders. The guidelines integrate the three critical components of juvenile information sharing – collaboration, confidentiality, and technology – into an effective developmental framework.  37 page pdf file.

++++++++++Models for Change: Building Momentum for Juvenile Justice Reform

The Justice Policy Institute released this report in December. The Models for Change initiative is an effort to create successful and replicable models of juvenile justice reform through targeted investments in key states. It is funded by the MacArthur Foundation. From the report executive summary:

Juvenile justice policy in the United States has quietly passed a milestone. After a decade shaped by myths of juvenile “superpredators” and the ascendancy of punitive reforms, momentum for systemic reform is growing. Significant new research on adolescent development and the demonstrated success of evidence-based practices have buoyed efforts to reestablish more rational and effective policies.

Click here to visit the Models for Change web site.
Click on the link above to go to the executive summary, a 12 page pdf file.
Read about the Illinois Models for Change project.

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New Study Says Pretrial Lockup May Make Juvenile More Likely to Commit Crimes

The Dangers of Detention: The Impact of Incarcerating Youth in Detention and Other Secure Facilities shows that, rather than promoting public safety, detention may contribute to future offenses. Studies from around the country show that incarcerated youth have higher recidivism rates than youth supervised in other kinds of settings. 

Read or download the report here. (24 page pdf file).

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Therapeutic Justice in Dependency Court

Judge Sharon McCully, past president of NCJFCJ, gave two reporters from the Salt Lake City Tribune permission to follow two child welfare cases over a two year period in her court, in which therapeutic justice is part of the treatment for families with addictions. There are three stories to read here.

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Judges Call for Community Responses to Juvenile Substance Abuse

A national group of judges is recommending that judicial officers nationwide take a more active role in helping youth in the juvenile justice system overcome their drug and alcohol problems. The judges, part of the Reclaiming Futures program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, issued their call to action as part of their jointly written monograph, A Model for Judicial Leadership: Community Responses to Juvenile Substance Abuse. Read/download the report at the link above.

Early research on the project conducted by the Urban Institute and the University of Chicago indicates the program ha significantly improved the coordination of juvenile justice and substance abuse treatment services in the program’s 10 communities nationwide.

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New Report Blasts Florida for Having Underfunded, Poorly Trained and Overworked Public Defenders for Children

The National Juvenile Defender Center has issued a 100+ page report which was supported by the Florida Supreme Court and the Florida Bar that concludes that public defenders in Florida’s juvenile courts frequently fail to provide adequate representation to children charged with crimes.
The link above will take you to a selection of news articles about the report’s release and a link to the report itself.

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Three New Special Project Bulletins from NCJJ

The National Center for Juvenile Justice has developed three new bulletins for its Technical Assistance to the Juvenile Court Project. All three are available for download at the NCJJ site as pdf files. They are:

Guide to the State Juvenile Justice Profiles

The Importance of Timely Case Processing in Non-Detained Juvenile Delinquency Cases How Does the Juvenile Justice System Measure Up?

Applying Performance Measures in Five Jurisdictions.

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Juvenile Justice Report Cards

Report cards are designed to inform communities on how well their juvenile justice systems are working. This article describes report cards in four communities in the country: Deschutes County, Ore., Pittsburgh, Pa. , South Carolina, and Cook County (Chicago), Ill.

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Cook County Juvenile Advisory Council (JAC)

JAC is a partnership of probation staff and court wards working together to develop a client-based perspective on the Department’s program and policies. Youth Representatives to the Council are equal partners and enjoy the same standing, benefits and rights as adult staff members. JAC relies heavily on its members to guide its work by contributing their thoughts and insights to an ongoing examination of the many aspects of the probation experience. Youth Representatives present the Probation Orientation and the Exit Interview Programs all probationers are required to attend. Preliminary research indicates that clients who attend JAC’s Probation Orientation Program return to court for violations approximately half as often as clients who miss the program.  The link above will take to you a description of the JAC and related documents.

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MTV Juvies

MTV News and Docs will go inside Indiana’s juvenile justice system for the new documentary series, MTV Juvies, which premieres September 5 at 10:00 pm ET/PT.

Set in Lake County’s Juvenile Division and the Juvenile Justice Complex, this eight-part series depicts what happens to juvenile offenders during their stay at the detention center and offers an unprecedented look inside the juvenile court. Judge Mary Beth Bonaventura, a member of NCJFCJ, is featured in the series.

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Thousands of Underage Illegal Immigrants from Central American Countries Are Detained

Last year 6,460 underage illegal immigrants from Central America were detained in the US while traveling without their parents and were sent to government shelters, a 35% increase over the previous year. Many of these young people are traveling alone because their parents are already in the United States illegally and are unwilling to fetch them now that the chances of getting caught have increased. Mexico deported almost four thousand children trying to sneak through Mexico to the United States in 2005.

A new report from Harvard University points to the void in immigration law that makes no provision for children. Children are subject to the same proceedings and evidentiary standards as adults. They are thrust into a system designed for adults, often without legal counsel or the emotional support to families to help them manage.
According to the report, the Office of Refugee Resettlement says that the average age of children in federal custody in 2004 was 15, with 79% of them between the ages of 15 and 18, and 20% of them between birth and age 14.

Harvard’s research reveals that little data exists on the impact of the U.S. immigration and asylum system on children. “Government record-keeping is virtually non-existent, official attention to the problem is ad hoc, and there is no senior administrative individual or entity charged with overall responsibility for unaccompanied and separated children within the system.”  The report, Seeking Asylum Alone: Unaccompanied and Separated Children and Refugee Protection in the U.S., is downloadable, but lengthy. It’s 111 pages.

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New Publications from NCJJ

The National Center for Juvenile Justice’s Technical Assistance to the Juvenile Court Project produces special project bulletins which are developed periodically on important juvenile justice issues and emerging topics. This page takes you to a summary of three new bulletins in the series:

• Guide to the State Juvenile Justice Profiles
• The Importance of Timely Case Processing in Non-Detained Juvenile Delinquency Cases
• How Does the Juvenile Justice System Measure Up? Applying Performance Measures in Five Jurisdictions.

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How Does the Juvenile Justice System Measure Up? Applying Performance Measures in Five Jurisdictions

This new Special Project Bulletin from NCJJ presents a case for measuring and reporting juvenile justice system performance outcomes and a field-tested strategy for collecting and reporting juvenile justice outcome measures. The performance measures presented in this Bulletin are predicated on the goals and measurable objectives of balanced and restorative justice.

The experiences of five disparate jurisdictions are used to illustrate that it is both possible and useful to measure juvenile justice system performance for individuals, agencies, and entire systems. With a preface by Judge Michael Anderegg, Presiding Judge of the Family Division in Marquette County, Michigan. 24 page pdf file.

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Easy Access to State and County Juvenile Court Case Counts

This new NCJJ servicegives users quick access to State and county juvenile court case counts for delinquency, status offense, and dependency cases. Data are from 1997 to 2002. At this page, click on the “Access Case Counts” tab.

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THE LINK: Connecting Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare

The lead story in the latest issue of this CWLA online publication deals with improving system responses to crossover youth, youth who penetrate both delinquency and dependency systems. 12 page downloadable pdf file. Back issues available at this page too.

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Juvenile Defender Delinquency Notebook

The National Juvenile Defender Center has revised and updated this manual for its 2nd edition, which is intended as an advocacy and training guide for juvenile defenders. Thirteen chapters cover everything from the initiation of the attorney-client relationship to appeals and related proceedings. Over 500 pages in its totality, but downloadable, in which case you should stock up on ink cartridges and invest in several reams of paper.  Or you can do it the easy way and order a hard copy for $20. Call 202.452.0010.

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Community Service Learning

This innovative new juvenile justice approach applies principles of school-based service learning, balanced and restorative justice, and law-related education to update and improve traditional, court-ordered, mandatory community service. It is published in the Spring 2006 issue of the quarterly online newsletter of the Constitutional Rights Foundation.

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International Human Rights: Law and Resources for Juvenile Defenders & Advocates

The National Juvenile Defender Center has published and makes available online this briefing paper to help defenders integrate new resources into their legal efforts. Includes sections on:

•  Sources of International Human Rights Law
• Human Rights and United States Courts
•  Inter-American Human Rights System
• Reconciling Due Process & Best Interest in Children’s Human Rights
• a set of human rights principles for juvenile justice advocates.

16 page pdf file.

Reforming Juvenile Delinquency Treatment to Enhance Rehabilitation, Personal Accountability and Public Safety

Law professor Douglas E. Abrams, a NCJFCJ member and a Brevity reader, has just written a lengthy article in the Oregon Law Review surveying national conditions of juvenile delinquency confinement. The article describes the widespread violence, abuse and neglect the Department of Justice has found in its inspections of several state detention facilities under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA). The article also discusses the Missouri statewide delinquency treatment system, widely regarded as a national model and concludes with eight recommendations for national reform. Available for download at the link above and click on “84 or.L.Rev. 1001.”  92 pages.

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Integrating Systems of Care: Improving Quality of Care for the Most Vulnerable Children and Families

This monograph released by CWLA is the second of two to support the development of a consensus agenda for systems-culture change. It outlines a detailed plan for systems-culture change across systems and identifies the steps needed to implement this approach. At the link above you can download the pdf file for both monographs.

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