For Young Offenders, Hope in a Jury of Their Peers

Connecticut is attempting to reduce prison recidivism by changing parole practices. Changes to the system are allowing parole officers to foster relationships with parolees and counsel them as people, not as cases.

New York has taken great strides in reforming their juvenile justice system, and key to that has been ensuring that those in the system receive ongoing support once they return to their communities. Organizations like Arches work with probation officers to provide young people with therapy and mentors – whose lives have been similar to their mentees – in order to provide the needed support and guidance. Such programs have shown lowered recidivism rates and have garnered the attention of officials in Milwaukee who are seeking to makeover their system.

In New York City, the Close to Home initiative is taking a different approach to juvenile justice by centering it around a localized, residential, and rehabilitative model. These facilities operate out of traditional-looking homes and are run by nonprofits like Rising Ground. Its model focuses on building relationships as a key to rehabilitation, and emphasizes the importance of staff / youth relationships and familial connections. As Wisconsin seeks to change their model of juvenile justice, it takes inspiration from Close to Home in its implementation of smaller, more regional facilities.

Juvenile detention usually leads to worse outcomes for youth in the future, while Juvenile Detention Alternatives allow for decreases in detention populations and the likelihood that youth will stay trapped in the system for life.

Paying at-risk people to stay out of trouble is the most controversial part of a new D.C. crime bill that also proposes counseling and other services to prevent repeat offenses. But a similar program is already in use in D.C., with the blessing of the District’s top prosecutor, giving nonviolent juvenile offenders a second chance. (2nd of a 3 part series)

In a conservative upstate town in New York, an early advocate of what is now known as restorative justice pioneered the idea of finding alternatives to incarceration that address root causes of crimes and offer victims larger roles in the process. He did this by engaging different people across law enforcement, the community and social services. That built broad support, but the programs have struggled to maintain these innovations or make them permanent after the departure of the visionary founder.

Jailing convicted criminals has shown that it neither changes illegal behavior, nor reduces the rate of re-incarceration. Brooklyn’s Red Hood Community Justice Center has given many guilty defendants of minor crimes treatment and individual assistance without incarceration. A new survey shows that community courts reduce costs, decrease jailed inmates, and drop the crime rate.

The number of youth confined in U.S. detention facilities has dropped by nearly half since 1997, saving money and reducing recidivism. A report by the Justice Policy Institute says this has made communities safer, but that reductions are only among those accused of nonviolent crimes and that racial and ethnic disparities have increased. The report calls for changes, such as repealing state laws on mandatory sentences, offering better probation supervision and creating more diversion options.

Alternative programming that involves "restorative justice" models - such as having youth within the criminal justice system create art as a means of self expression instead of detaining them in a prison-like facility - are much more effective at preventing antisocial and criminal behavior in youth than involvement in the juvenile-justice system.

Communities nationwide, including in Wisconsin, work to help ex-prisoners by surrounding them with supportive people. But in Vermont, a statewide network funded by the DOC makes it happen.