Author: McCurley, Carl
Title: Process Evaluation of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Juvenile Justice Services’ Aftercare Program
Summary: The purpose of this report is to provide an evaluation of the design and implementation of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Juvenile Justice Services’ (BJJS) new model of aftercare. Understanding how aftercare services are delivered and how the program actually operates is essential for decisionmaking about program planning and for improvement. In January 2005, BJJS decided to shift from a treatment model of aftercare service delivery to a case management model of service delivery. BJJS provides aftercare services to about 2 out of every 3 youth released from placements with the State’s Youth Development Center/Youth Forestry Center (YDC/YFC) system. At current levels of use, the aftercare program enrolls over 500 youth per year. Based on screener results, the great majority of youth enrolled in the program are classified as high risk—they are also older, with greater needs, and more serious offending histories than the average adjudicated youth in Pennsylvania. The BJJS program is one of six major aftercare initiatives active in Pennsylvania, all of which are funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. The other five programs, all associated with the MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change initiative, are specific to the single county where they operate: Allegheny, Cambria, Lycoming, Philadelphia, and York counties. In contrast, the BJJS program operates in a group of counties that contain more than 70% of Pennsylvania’s population. Like the Philadelphia program, and like many other serious and violent offender re-entry programs in operation across the nation, the BJJS aftercare program employs a case management model that features extensive assessment, individualized planning, a focus on the transition from life in the placement facility to life in the community, and efforts to assist the youth in building durable, supportive relationships in the community (reintegration). The goals of the BJJS Aftercare Services Project are based on the Intensive Aftercare Program (IAP) model developed by David Altschuler and Troy Armstrong (1994). Instead of starting aftercare services after the youth is released, the planning, assessments, and client contact begins when the youth is placed in the facility. The new BJJS approach begins at disposition, continues while the youth is in placement and on probation in the community, and endures afterwards through connections with services in the community. BJJS contracted with a private provider, Cornell, to implement the community component of the aftercare services model. In the old model, the youth went through the program in phases (could not move to Phase 2 until successfully completing Phase 1). In the new model, the youth completes steps in their own individualized service plan rather than completing a “one size fits all” program. Each youth’s plan is developed based on his/her strengths and needs, family assessments, and resources that will be available in their home community when they are released.Changes in the program model required new resources be put into place both in the facilities and the communities. BJJS made many changes in the program infrastructure, including adding new staff, training staff on the new way of doing business, and using new assessment instruments. The goals of the BJJS aftercare program are to reduce delinquency and improve the life chances for high-risk youth released from state placements. To reach its goals, the program relies on effective collaboration across agencies that traditionally have been independent. The BJJS program requires collaboration among BJJS staff within the YDC/YFC system, contracted case managers active at the facility and in the communities, juvenile court and juvenile probation, families, and community-based service providers. In large measure, success of the aftercare program depends on BJJS success at achieving and sustaining collaboration in a set of state, local, public, private, and non-profit agencies and organizations.
Details: Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2006. 137p.
Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 2, 2011 at: www.portal.state.pa.us
Year: 2006
Country: United States
URL:
Shelf Number: 122258
Keywords:
Juvenile Aftercare (Pennsylvania)Juvenile OffendersJuvenile ProbationRecidivismReentryRehabilitation |
