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:
- Diversion Alternatives for Status Offenders
- Juvenile Defense Standards
- Problem solving Courts
- Collaboration with Juvenile Justice Stakeholders and the Community
- Use of Judicial Discretion
- Resources to Assist states in Reform Efforts
- Use of data to address Racial and Ethnic Disparity (DMC)
- Managing Dual Status (dependent & Delinquent) Youth
- 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