Principles of Juvenile Justice Development
“The Principles of Juvenile Justice Development” was compiled by the JJSC members and supported by the SACJJDP members to “reflect policies and best practices that have become widely accepted in juvenile justice professional and stakeholder communities based on recent research, developmental science, legislative changes, and state and federal court decisions.”
- The Principles of Juvenile Justice Development – PDF
National Standards for the Care of Youth Charged with Status Offenses
The SACJJDP, as members of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ), has adopted the National Standards for the Care of Youth Charged with Status Offenses, a set of concrete policy and practice recommendations for avoiding or limiting court involvement for youth charged with non-delinquent offenses. (A status offender is a juvenile charged with or adjudicated for conduct that would not, under the law of the jurisdiction in which the offense was committed, be a crime if committed by an adult. The most common examples of status offenses are chronic or persistent truancy, running away, violating curfew laws, or possessing alcohol or tobacco.) The Committee will support efforts to ensure California’s approach to working with status offenders mirrors the National Standards.
- National Standards for the Care of Youth Charged with Status Offenses – PDF
CJJ created the National Standards for the Care of Youth Charged with Status Offenses. The National Standards aim to promote best practices for this population, based in research and social service approaches, to better engage and support youth and families in need of assistance. Given what we know, the National Standards call for an absolute prohibition on detention of status offenders and seek to divert them entirely from the delinquency system by promoting the most appropriate services for families and the least restrictive placement options for status offending youth.
The National Standards were developed by the CJJ in partnership with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) and a team of experts from various jurisdictions, disciplines and perspectives, including juvenile and family court judges, child welfare and juvenile defense attorneys, juvenile corrections and detention administrators, community-based service providers, and practitioners with expertise in responding to gender-specific needs. Many hours were devoted to discussing, debating and constructing a set of ambitious yet implementable standards that are portable, easily understood, and designed to spur and inform state and local policy and practice reforms.
The National Standards build on the original intent of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) and its Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders core requirement, recent efforts to eliminate the Valid Court Order exception in Congress (S. 3155 and S. 678), and the “safety, permanency and well-being” framework set forth in the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA). Like ASFA’s focus on the child’s best interest, the National Standards call for system responses that keep youth and their families’ best interests at the center of the intervention. Individually and collectively, the National Standards promote system reforms and changes in system culture, as well as the workforce needed to ensure ensures adoption and implementation of empirically-supported policies, programs and practices that effectively meet the needs of youth, their families and the community.
Watch the interview of Annie Salsich, from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ), regarding the National Standards at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9IoIywrqGY&feature=youtu.be
Safety, Opportunity, and Success (SOS) Project
Six publications were released as a follow up to the National Standards for the Care of Youth Charged with Status Offenses. The National Standards, created as a part of CJJ’s Safety, Opportunity and Success (SOS) Project, Standards of Care for Non-Delinquent Youth.
- Ungovernability and Runaway Youth highlights a new case study in Alabama – PDF
- LGBTQ Youth and Status Offenses discusses LGBTQ youth in the juvenile justice system – PDF
- Use of the Valid Court Order examines how the valid court order exception is used in some states to incarcerate youth charged with status offenses – PDF
- Truancy and Other Status Offenses is the first policy guidance fact sheet focused on this issue – PDF
- Disproportionate Minority Contact and Status Offenses contains new juvenile justice data and examines the data deficit on disproportionality among status offenders and the implications for juvenile justice reform – PDF
- Girls, Status Offenses And The Need For A Less Punitive And More Empowering Approach is the first Emerging Issues Policy Brief that examines the need for gender responsive services in juvenile justice and the implicit bias girls often face in the juvenile justice system – PDF
For more about The SOS project: http://www.juvjustice.org/our-work/safety-opportunity-and-success-project/about-sos-project