Western States Juvenile Justice Reform Summit

Seattle, Washington | May 21–22, 2014
Sponsored by MacArthur Foundation & National Center for State Courts (NCSC)
State Team Reports (as recorded by Chris Provost and George Yeannakis)
Western JDC post

There were nine reform initiatives presented at the Summit Workshops:

  1. Diversion Alternatives for Status Offenders
  2. Juvenile Defense Standards
  3. Problem solving Courts
  4. Collaboration with Juvenile Justice Stakeholders and the Community
  5. Use of Judicial Discretion
  6. Resources to Assist states in Reform Efforts
  7. Use of data to address Racial and Ethnic Disparity (DMC)
  8. Managing Dual Status (dependent & Delinquent) Youth
  9. Communicating with Youth (Colloquies)

Your state teams identified the following reform goals as priorities
(State contact person is in parentheses)

Alaska (Hon. Joel H. Bolger)
Transition – Anchorage MCA – created evidence based interventions
Transition to serve crossover dually involved youth
Develop education programs – joint, not limited to defense – ABA, plus formal training for all players

Arizona (Mr. John R. Raeder)
The State has been working on 9 reform initiatives discussed at Summit.
Goal – to make sure the programs adopted are evidence based practices

Hawaii (Ms. Christine Miwa Mendoza)
Legislative reform in 2009 making it easier to further goals
Goal – Validate the risk need assessment statewide to drive probation practice and needs services
Goal — Identify health needs of juveniles
Goal — Statewide training with all agencies on risk/needs assessment
Goal – Enhance mental health services by addressing trauma informed care and LGBT strategies

Idaho (Hon. Mark Ingram)
Interrelated goals of:
– Increase diversion
– Consistent use of evidence based practices
– Reduction in referrals to court from schools
Goal – Have plan in place for review in 120 days
Goal – Host Juvenile defense bar training by December.
Goal – Public access to records
Process – Partner with RFK center first, then
Generate Rule and legislative changes

Montana (Mr. Robert J. Peake)
Goal –Set up multi-system collaboration, particularly kids with dual status (dependent and delinquent).
Goal – Research on models for change and share with counterparts
Goal – sharing of information among stakeholders

Nevada (Ms. Stephanie Heying)
Already addressing a lot of the issues
Goal – reduce the number going to court
Goal – reduction of DMC
Goal – review current statute for information sharing across departments

New Mexico (Mr. Arthur W. Pepin)
Goal – Reduce school discipline by using enhanced evidence based diversion
Goal – Reduce DMC and mental health referrals by working with existing juvenile community boards
Goal – Create a Law Center for statewide training

Oregon (Ms. Megan Hassen)
(Mental Health is a major problem. Juvenile detention has become the mental health facility, and is not equipped to provide treatment)
Goal – Early identification of Mental Health issues
Goal – Early intervention on mental health issues at the front end and at the back end when youth do penetrate the system
Goal – Increasing community supports for Mental Health services .
Goal –   Plan a summit to collaborate on mental heath issues

Utah
Goal – ID juveniles with Mental Health issues earlier and avoid unnecessary penetration into delinquency system;
Goal – standardization of Mental Health assessments by meeting w/ subject matter experts;
Goal – Improving defense representation

Washington (Ms. Callie Dietz)
Goals – Developmentally appropriate language and court forms
Goals – reducing referrals from schools to courts
Goal – reducing DMC, even related to auto-decline
Goal – Developing Juvenile Defense standards

Wyoming (Hon. E. James Burke)
Goal – Enhance interagency communications