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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 11:49 pm
Time: 11:49 pm
Results for young adult courts
1 results foundAuthor: White, Elise Title: Changing the Frame: Practitioner Knowledge, Perceptions, and Practice in New York City's Young Adult Courts Summary: With funding from the New York Community Trust, the Center for Court Innovation sought to change standard approaches and resultant poor outcomes by creating age-appropriate programming for criminal defendants up to age 24 across the city. By expanding services and court mechanisms already in place for 16- and 17-year-olds, the Center developed short-term alternative-to-incarceration programs for young adults (age caps varied across boroughs).1 Services included short-term counseling; developmentally-appropriate community service; educational and vocational services; substance abuse treatment, mental health and trauma counseling; and cognitive behavioral therapy sessions. Through a variety of programs, the Center worked with courtroom practitioners to make use of alternative, age-appropriate interventions in lieu of incarceration, criminal convictions, fines, or other sanctions. Methodology The study included two components: - Sentencing Practices Survey: A 42-item online survey was administered to courtroom practitioners across three boroughs with active young adult court programs (Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan) to identify current practices, attitudes, and knowledge among general practitioners. The link was distributed by supervising attorneys at each agency to their staffs, reaching an estimated 1202 practitioners, 194 of whom participated, for a response rate of 16%. Note that 727 of these were 18B attorneys reached via use of a listserv, only 9 of whom participated. The response rate for the remainder of the sample was 39%. - Practitioner Interviews: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten legal practitioners across four agencies centrally involved in Brooklyn's Young Adult Court (the most active of the young adult court parts) to obtain a clear understanding of its mechanics and evolving attitudes regarding appropriate court responses to young adults. The Young Adult Court Model The implementation of the young adult court model differs by borough. The Brooklyn Young Adult Court represents the most extensive implementation of the model, and is consequently featured in this report as a case study. Launched in 2012, the first iteration of the young adult court in Brooklyn was the Adolescent Diversion Program (ADP). As described earlier, through this initiative, specialized courtrooms were established in each borough for the cases of 16- and 17-year-olds. Specially-trained judges with an expanded array of dispositional options available to them presided over the ADP court calendars. The goal of the court was two-fold: (1) to connect teenage defendants with services that might enable them to avoid future criminal justice system contact and (2) to avoid the legal and collateral consequences associated with criminal prosecution. In 2014, practitioners embarked on a second iteration: expanding to include 18- to 24-yearolds in Red Hook and Brownsville, two neighborhoods where the Center runs operating projects with the capacity to support programming for defendants. Finally, in 2015 the Center, in partnership with the Kings County District Attorney's Office, received funding through the U.S. Department of Justice Smart Prosecution Initiative. In 2016, practitioners created the third iteration of the initiative, further expanding the court to include the cases for all 16- to 24-year-olds charged with misdemeanors in Brooklyn.2 Findings Interview Findings in Brooklyn Interview findings suggest that practitioners in Brooklyn generally feel that the specialized court is functioning well, with several key factors driving that success: 1. Strong judicial leadership; 2. A mandatory referral process, facilitated by the Office of Court Administration, in which all age-eligible cases not resolved at arraignment are automatically routed to the young adult court (rather than allowing defendants to opt out); 3. Training in topics relevant to the adolescent and young adult target population, provided to all interested providers by the Center for Court Innovation; and 4. Prosecutorial buy-in and collaboration. Details: New York: Center for Court Innovation, 2017. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 11, 2018 at: https://www.courtinnovation.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/2018-03/changing_frame_nyc_young_adult_courts.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.courtinnovation.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/2018-03/changing_frame_nyc_young_adult_courts.pdf Shelf Number: 150159 Keywords: AdolescentsYoung Adult CourtsYoung Adult OffendersYouthful Offenders |