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Articles tagged with: Center for Children’s Law and Policy

Advocates Gather to Discuss the History and Importance of Landmark JJDPA Legislation

Friday, 18 October 2013 Posted in 2013, Federal Update

 

By Jill Ward

Yesterday, advocates from the National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Coalition and related ACT4JJ Campaigngathered to learn more about the history of the landmark federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) and why it is still important today.

Mark Soler
The day opened with Mark Soler from the Center for Children’s Law and Policy talking about the estimated 500,000 children that were being held in adult jails across the country in the early 1970s.  A majority of these children were either status offenders who were being picked up for non-criminal offenses like truancy, breaking curfew, and running away from home, or youth detained for very minor, non-violent offenses. 

Take the story of a 15-year-old girl who was held in an upstairs cell in a county jail who hanged herself; or the story of a 17-year-old boy who was held in adult prison for not paying $73 in traffic tickets and was beaten over a 14-hour period and finally murdered by others in the cell; or the story of a 13-year-old boy in Maine who was detained for stealing a dirt bike and was raped in the same cell..  And the list went on.

Understanding that this needed to change, in 1974, as part of the JJDPA, Congress prohibited placing these youth in secure facilities and also called for young people in the juvenile system to have “sight and sound” separation from adults in the criminal justice system.  These protections reflected increasing tragedies involving young people being held in adult jails and with adult inmates. In 1980, Congress added a further protection calling for youth in the juvenile justice system to be removed entirely from adult jails and lock-ups with very limited exceptions.

While judges in many states are effectively and proactively addressing the needs of these youth without resorting to detention, too many young people are still unnecessarily finding their way into the juvenile justice system.

 

Liz Ryan, Marc Schindler, and Jill Ward   
Through a reauthorization of the JJDPA, Congress can strengthen the core protections by eliminating the Valid Court Order (VCO) exception, that has allowed status offenders to continue to be locked up for their second and subsequent offenses, to keep all status offenders out of jails and other secure facilities and direct them toward community-based alternatives.  A reauthorization can also further strengthen the sight and sound and removal protections to ensure that no young person under age 18 is held in adult facilities or has contact with adult inmates. 

We also heard from former Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Administrator, John Wilson, who talked about how the agency evolved and worked to implement the JJDPA.  Attendees heard about the strong partnership between Congress and the Administration that existed in the 1970s and into the 1980s to enact the law and work on subsequent reauthorizations. 

Over lunch Bobby Vassar, former House Judiciary Committee Counsel, talked about attempts in the 1990s to amend the law to further criminalize youth and roll back JJDPA core protections for children and how those efforts were defeated.
The day ended with a discussion about the important role of the NJJDP Coalition and advocates across the country to continue to educate the public and key policymakers about how the law has helped protect children involved in the juvenile and criminal justice systems and supported state efforts to prevent youth crime and reduce recidivism.  What was clear from the day is that the JJDPA remains a critical tool to incentivize states to keep system-involved youth safe and help them more appropriately meet the needs of youth in crisis.

Currently, the JJDPA is more than 5 years overdue for reauthorization and funding levels continue to decline.  We can’t afford to turn the clock back on the advances made by the JJDPA.  Youth Justice Awareness Month (YJAM) is the perfect time to let your federal leaders know that the JJDPA matters and deserves their support.

Please visit the JJDPA Matters Action Center to contact your Senators and Representative and let them know the JJDPA matters to you!

To learn more about the JJDPA and the campaign to reauthorize and fund the law go to:  http://www.act4jj.org/

 

 

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Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System: Federal Support Still Needed

Wednesday, 16 October 2013 Posted in 2013, Research & Policy

 
As part of National Youth Justice Awareness Month, we are highlighting the federal Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention Act’s(JJDPA) core requirement, “Disproportionate Minority Contact” for its’ role in supporting state and local efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. 
 
The JJDPA, established in 1974 to provide federal standards for the custody and care of youth in the juvenile justice system, was updated twenty years ago with the “Disproportionate Minority Confinement” (DMC) provision requiring states to address the disproportionate confinement of youth of color at key points in the juvenile justice system.
 
In the most recent JJDPA reauthorization ten years ago, the term confinement was changed to contact emphasizing the racial and ethnic disparities faced by youth of color at all points in the juvenile justice system. “DMC is a critical issue in the juvenile justice system because it is an issue of basic fairness,” says national expert Mark Soler, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Children’s Law and Policy.
 
The DMC provision was added to the law because of the huge disparities in the treatment of youth of color in the juvenile justice system. For example, African-American youth make up only 17% of the nation’s total youth population,  but African-American youth constitute 30% of the youth arrested nationwide and 62% of all youth in the adult criminal justice system.  Latino and Native American youth experience similar unfairness within the juvenile justice system. Latino children, the fastest-growing segment of the American population, represent 23% of all children under the 18.  At the same time, Latino youth are 40% more likely than white youth to be admitted to adult prison. Finally, Native American youth receive harsher sentences, with a 50% higher likelihood than white youth to receive out-of-home placement or to be placed in the adult system.
 
“Having an over-representation of young people of color in confinement means that those young people’s life outcomes are seriously diminished,” says one of the nation’s leaders on efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities, James Bell, Founder and Executive Director of the Haywood Burns Institute. “And that is why we as a society should care mightily about this.”
 
These facts are often undermined by a false impression that youth of color commit more crime than white youth.  That is simply not true.  Results from self-report surveys indicate that white youth are in fact significantly more likely than youth of color to use drugs and alcohol, sell drugs, and engage in minor theft.  Although white youth admit high drug use, African-American youth are twice as likely to be arrested and detained and as a group account for 87% of all youth tried in adult court for drug offenses.
 
The JJDPA’s DMC provision has ensured funding to every state to reduce these stark racial and ethnic disparities.  There are promising efforts in a number of states.  Take a look at the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) efforts and the Models for Change (MfC) initiative.
 
However, the recent U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division three-year investigation into the operations of the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County Tennessee underscores the need to redouble efforts nationally to do much much more, not less, to reduce racial and ethnic disparities. 
 
The federal investigation found extensive racial disparities in the treatment of African-American children: African-American youth are twice as likely as white youth to be recommended for transfer to adult court.  Of the 390 transfers to adult court in 2010 in Tennessee, approximately one half were from Shelby County, and all but two of the total children transferred were African-American.
 
As we all take National Youth Justice Awareness Month to highlight key youth justice issues, such as reducing racial and ethnic disparities, we encourage you to take a few minutes to check out the JJDPA Matters Action Center and let your national leaders know  you support the JJDPA and related juvenile justice funding.  Let them know that federal policies and programs can be part of the solution for youth in your community. Let them know that the JJDPA matters to you.
 
Join us this week in continuing the conversation on youth justice issues, follow us on Facebook and Twitter using: #JJDPAmatters #YJAM #JUSTinvest #youthjustice