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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:12 pm
Time: 8:12 pm
Results for juvenile justice systems (texas)
1 results foundAuthor: Fabelo, Tony Title: Closer to Home: An Analysis of the State and Local Impact of the Texas Juvenile Justice Reforms Summary: Since 1997, arrest rates among juveniles in the United States have sunk to an all time low, and the number of youth incarcerated in state or county correctional facilities has plummeted. After peaking in 1996, arrests of juveniles fell by approximately 50 percent between 1997 and 2011, to their lowest level in 30 years. During the same period, youth confinement rates declined almost 50 percent. Why are so many fewer youth locked up today compared to nearly 20 years ago? It's not simply because arrests are down; trends in the 1990s demonstrate that the number of youth incarcerated can actually increase even while arrest rates decline. A key reason that confinement rates for youth have shrunk so considerably is the deliberate efforts state and county governments have made to address youth incarceration-efforts driven by a combination of research, advocacy, litigation, and fiscal considerations. Policymakers are seeking to learn more about what happens after a youth comes into contact with the juvenile justice system. Many states that track recidivism data report rearrest rates for youth returning from confinement to be as high as 75 percent within three years of release. Despite a convincing body of research demonstrating what works to reduce recidivism among youth in contact with the juvenile justice system, most state and local governments have had little success achieving significant and sustained progress in reducing these recidivism rates. Translating this research into policy and practice and holding agencies and service providers accountable for results has been challenging. After a series of scandals involving the abuse of youth incarcerated in state-run juvenile correctional facilities came to light in Texas, state leaders there instituted the first of a number of reforms intended to shrink the number of youth held in state-run facilities. For example, in 2007 the state prohibited youth who committed misdemeanors from being confined in state-run secure juvenile facilities. The same bill also lowered the age of the state's jurisdiction over youth from 21 to 19, dramatically reducing the number of youth in state-run secure facilities. Two years later, the legislature established a grant program providing counties with financial incentives to decrease the rate at which they committed youth to state-run correctional facilities. Besides lowering the number of youth in state-run secure facilities, Texas state leaders anticipated that these and other measures would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in savings to the state over several years, while shifting to county governments the responsibility of overseeing youth who previously would have been committed to state-run secure facilities. Lawmakers thus took steps to assist these local governments, directing significant funding to county-run juvenile probation departments. After these reforms had been given ample time to take root, Texas state leaders posed important questions that resonate with policymakers in any jurisdiction who are working to reduce the number of youth incarcerated at the state level: To what extent were changes to state policy responsible for driving down the number of incarcerated youth? What types of services and supervision are youth who previously would have been committed to a state-run secure facility now receiving locally? Are youth adjudicated to the supervision of a local juvenile probation department less likely to have subsequent contact with the justice system than youth committed to a state-run correctional facility? Do these outcomes vary depending on the county where the youth is adjudicated? If so, why? This report sheds unprecedented light on the answers to these and other questions, providing Texas state leaders with an assessment of the impact of the reforms to date and an important resource to inform strategies that build and improve upon these reforms. At the same time, this report offers insights that policymakers and practitioners outside Texas who are interested in improving their state's juvenile justice system will find invaluable. Details: New York: Council of State Governments Justice Center; College Station, TX: Public Policy Research Institute, Texas A&M University,2015. 108p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 29, 2015 at: http://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/texas-JJ-reform-closer-to-home.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/texas-JJ-reform-closer-to-home.pdf Shelf Number: 134489 Keywords: Juvenile CorrectionsJuvenile InmatesJuvenile Justice PolicyJuvenile Justice ReformJuvenile Justice Systems (Texas)Juvenile Offenders |