Experiencing Probation Transformation in Pierce County, Washington

Juve­nile pro­ba­tion lead­ers from 15 juris­dic­tions across the coun­try recent­ly toured the juve­nile court in Pierce Coun­ty, Wash­ing­ton. There, they learned how the court trans­formed its sur­veil­lance-ori­ent­ed pro­ba­tion approach into a tar­get­ed inter­ven­tion that pro­motes per­son­al growth, pos­i­tive behav­ior change and long-term youth success.

Joint­ly spon­sored by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion and the Amer­i­can Pro­ba­tion and Parole Asso­ci­a­tion (APPA), the two-day vis­it demon­strat­ed the effec­tive­ness of strate­gies root­ed in the Foundation’s vision for trans­form­ing juve­nile pro­ba­tion. The pro­ba­tion lead­ers observed what is pos­si­ble when youth jus­tice sys­tems build strong com­mu­ni­ty part­ner­ships and max­i­mize con­nec­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple to become suc­cess­ful adults.

“The vis­it to Pierce Coun­ty Juve­nile Court,” said Casey Foun­da­tion Senior Asso­ciate Opal West, ​“was both a learn­ing expe­ri­ence for the par­tic­i­pants and an oppor­tu­ni­ty for them to reflect on ele­ments of pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion they can imple­ment in their own jurisdictions.”

Walk­ing and Talk­ing Data

The vis­it began with an overview of the coun­ty, the sec­ond most pop­u­lous in the state and home to Taco­ma. A Trans­for­ma­tion Jour­ney Walk fol­lowed — the strik­ing visu­al pre­sen­ta­tion high­light­ed every step of the court’s progress in reform­ing its juve­nile jus­tice poli­cies and prac­tices. Empha­siz­ing the col­lec­tion and use of data, the pre­sen­ta­tion includ­ed a chronol­o­gy of Pierce County’s key inter­ven­tions, including: 

• Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive (2004);
• Pro­ba­tion Trans­for­ma­tion (2016); and
• data show­ing low­er dai­ly deten­tion pop­u­la­tions and reduc­tions in racial disparities.

“It was impres­sive to see Pierce County’s data and [its] data charts, which we don’t have,” said Kel­ly Gray, chief pro­ba­tion offi­cer with Met­ro­pol­i­tan Nashville and David­son Coun­ty Juve­nile Court. ​“They’re telling their sto­ry. We need to be able to tell ours in a pub­lic plat­form, and we’re work­ing on that.”

After the data walk, the vis­i­tors toured the cour­t­house, see­ing first­hand how the vision of pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion was embed­ded through­out the depart­ment. Infor­mal con­ver­sa­tions with Pierce Coun­ty staff revealed a col­lec­tive com­mit­ment to the over­all goal of ensur­ing that all the county’s young peo­ple thrive in healthy homes and feel con­nect­ed to their communities.

“As we moved through the build­ing, there was a tan­gi­ble sense of a com­plete cul­ture shift for the whole depart­ment,” said Derek Getic, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Super­vi­sion Ser­vices with the Mary­land Depart­ment of Juve­nile Ser­vices. ​“It’s not just a top-down lead­er­ship direc­tive. There’s buy-in from the staff. I could­n’t have picked up any of that from a vir­tu­al meet­ing or video.”

Core Prin­ci­ples of Youth Probation

The vis­it to Pierce Coun­ty includ­ed a deep dive into the 10 core prin­ci­ples of youth pro­ba­tion, based on a recent APPA call to action.

“After the vis­it, I sched­uled two days of train­ing with my pro­ba­tion staff focused exclu­sive­ly on the 10 core prin­ci­ples,” said Gray. ​“We’re not going to rush through them. We’re going to make sure everybody’s com­fort­able with them and real­ly under­stands them.”

Cen­tral to Pierce County’s pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion strat­e­gy is its com­mit­ment to APPA’s sev­enth core prin­ci­ple: serv­ing as a bridge to com­mu­ni­ty oppor­tu­ni­ties and con­nec­tions. This approach empha­sizes the impor­tance of strong rela­tion­ships with com­mu­ni­ty part­ners who help design and pro­vide pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment ser­vices. The impact of these part­ner­ships inspired many vis­it­ing pro­ba­tion lead­ers, includ­ing Cory Burgess, chief juve­nile pro­ba­tion offi­cer for Travis Coun­ty, Texas.

Deter­mined to deep­en his department’s rela­tion­ships with com­mu­ni­ty part­ners, Burgess said, ​“Com­mu­ni­ty-based pro­gram­ming is the most impor­tant thing for me. It’s some­thing we will be look­ing to imple­ment in Travis County.”

Feed­back From Fam­i­lies and Youth

Engag­ing with peo­ple who have expe­ri­ence with the jus­tice sys­tem is a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion. The vis­i­tors to Pierce Coun­ty met with mem­bers of the juve­nile court’s Fam­i­ly Coun­cil, nine par­ent care­givers and three young adults with jus­tice sys­tem expe­ri­ence. Derek Getic was one of many pro­ba­tion lead­ers who not­ed Pierce County’s recep­tiv­i­ty to feed­back from kids and families.

“We can ask fam­i­lies what they need and want to get young peo­ple back on track, and we can include that in our rec­om­men­da­tions to the court,” said Getic. ​“These are things we can do with­out a pol­i­cy direc­tive or law change and have been ini­ti­at­ed since my return from Pierce County.”

Vis­it­ing pro­ba­tion lead­ers also learned how Pierce County’s approach to diver­sion low­ers case­loads and enables more effec­tive inter­ven­tions for youth assessed as low risk. ​“The diver­sion pro­gram was extreme­ly impres­sive,” said Gray. ​“We have a diver­sion pro­gram, and I was excit­ed to get a dif­fer­ent perspective.”

Pierce Coun­ty Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion Leadership

Pierce County’s pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion is dri­ven by TJ Bohl, juve­nile court admin­is­tra­tor, and Kevin Williams, pro­ba­tion ser­vices man­ag­er — both alum­ni of Casey’s Juve­nile Jus­tice Applied Lead­er­ship Net­work. Their lead­er­ship, along with strong court staff sup­port and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment, pro­vid­ed vis­it­ing pro­ba­tion lead­ers with an eye-open­ing experience.

“I’ve attend­ed a lot of nation­al and state-lev­el con­fer­ences, and this was one of the best oppor­tu­ni­ties for hands-on learn­ing and net­work­ing with peers,” said Burgess. ​“I would love to take my whole exec­u­tive team and staff to Pierce Coun­ty to show them…what we can do to improve our system.”

Learn insights from young peo­ple and fam­i­lies who have expe­ri­enced youth probation