Healing-Centered Approaches in Juvenile Justice

In this Q&A, Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion Senior Asso­ciate Tanya Wash­ing­ton explores the role of heal­ing in fos­ter­ing safer com­mu­ni­ties and help­ing young peo­ple with jus­tice-sys­tem involve­ment thrive.

Q: Dis­cus­sions about heal­ing should begin with rec­og­niz­ing the trau­ma these young peo­ple have expe­ri­enced, right?

Wash­ing­ton: Yes. Trau­ma and severe pover­ty are com­mon in young peo­ple who com­mit offens­es. Trau­mat­ic child­hood expe­ri­ences, such as hunger and wit­ness­ing or being vic­tim­ized by vio­lence with­in the fam­i­ly or com­mu­ni­ty, pro­found­ly affect ado­les­cent brain devel­op­ment. Over half of jus­tice-involved youth have expe­ri­enced such trau­ma.

Research makes clear that young peo­ple who are involved in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem are far more like­ly than oth­er youth to have suf­fered trau­ma in their lives. With these sta­tis­tics in mind, indi­vid­u­als work­ing in the juve­nile jus­tice field should under­stand that trau­ma can lead young peo­ple to have a hard time trust­ing peo­ple; feel hurt, rage and sad­ness; take the hurt out on them­selves and oth­ers; and not be able to imag­ine their future, let alone plan for it.

Q: What do you want juve­nile jus­tice prac­ti­tion­ers to know about trauma?

Wash­ing­ton: Trau­ma-induced behav­iors by young peo­ple and fam­i­ly mem­bers can be misiden­ti­fied as act­ing out, non­com­pli­ance, resis­tance or apa­thy. Case­work­ers may react to the behav­ior with­out rec­og­niz­ing, explor­ing or respond­ing to the fac­tors behind it. One of those fac­tors is sci­ence. While I’m not a doc­tor, I have learned that child­hood trau­ma is known to affect brain devel­op­ment, includ­ing enlarg­ing the amyg­dala. This can man­i­fest in exag­ger­at­ed emo­tion­al reac­tions, such as a fight or flight response.

When young peo­ple are act­ing out due to trau­ma, pain and unmet needs, their behav­iors will not improve through sur­veil­lance and incar­cer­a­tion; these respons­es only exac­er­bate the trau­ma and the behav­ior. And for youth who enter the jus­tice sys­tem with­out pri­or trau­ma, a focus on sur­veil­lance and incar­cer­a­tion can intro­duce trau­ma for the first time.

As much as we would like young peo­ple to be ​“healed” and be done with it, the heal­ing process is often marked by ups and downs, progress and set­backs. Young peo­ple are like­ly to need ongo­ing sup­port and compassion.

Q: Does child­hood trau­ma dam­age young peo­ple forever?

Wash­ing­ton: Child­hood trau­ma is known to impact brain devel­op­ment and can have long-term effects. Even so, it does not have to shape a young person’s des­tiny. Young peo­ple have the capac­i­ty to grow, learn and flour­ish with the right sup­port and oppor­tu­ni­ties. This includes being able to focus on the future and set for­ward-look­ing goals.

Q: What is a heal­ing-cen­tered approach?

Wash­ing­ton: Heal­ing is a process through which young peo­ple acknowl­edge their trau­ma and con­nect with indi­vid­u­als and resources that sup­port them in con­fronting and refram­ing painful expe­ri­ences. It’s young peo­ple hav­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to address what­ev­er harm they caused oth­ers and heal from harm inflict­ed on them.

Peo­ple may have heard of a trau­­ma-informed approach, which empha­sizes how trau­ma shapes an individual’s behav­i­or and employs prac­tices that avoid trig­gers that reac­ti­vate the individual’s flight-or-fight reac­tion. Shawn Gin­right, a pro­fes­sor and author, describes his vision for a heal­ing-cen­tered approach as ​“not sim­ply an indi­vid­ual iso­lat­ed expe­ri­ence, but rather the ways in which trau­ma and heal­ing are expe­ri­enced col­lec­tive­ly.” His exam­ple: Researchers have shown that chil­dren in neigh­bor­hoods with high lev­els of vio­lence all dis­play behav­ioral and psy­cho­log­i­cal ele­ments of trau­ma. For him — and for me — heal­ing-cen­tered engage­ment views trau­ma and well-being as func­tions of the envi­ron­ments where peo­ple live, work and play. The goal is enhanc­ing the con­di­tions that con­tribute to well-being. ​“By only treat­ing the indi­vid­ual, we only address part of the equa­tion leav­ing the tox­ic sys­tems, poli­cies and prac­tices neat­ly intact,” Gin­wright writes.

Q: How is a heal­ing-cen­tered approach dif­fer­ent from tra­di­tion­al approach­es in juve­nile justice?

Wash­ing­ton: Heal­ing-cen­tered approach­es give young peo­ple the tools to rec­og­nize their behav­ioral trig­gers and cope with their emo­tions. The tools are indi­vid­u­al­ized and con­sid­er what the giv­en young per­son needs to feel safe — emo­tion­al­ly and phys­i­cal­ly — and con­nect­ed to pos­i­tive peo­ple they trust. These are some of the pre­cur­sors for young peo­ple to mature into healthy adults. They are what make youth recep­tive to per­son­al growth and more respon­si­ble deci­sion making. 

Heal­ing is a proac­tive, rather than puni­tive, pub­lic safe­ty strat­e­gy. Tra­di­tion­al juve­nile jus­tice approach­es often focus on con­trol and pun­ish­ment. The youth prison model assumes that incar­cer­at­ing young peo­ple is nec­es­sary for pub­lic safe­ty and that pun­ish­ment deters crime. How­ev­er, this strat­e­gy fails to address the rea­sons young peo­ple break the law. Many young peo­ple make poor choic­es due to a lack of hope, but pub­lic sys­tems often respond to the behav­ior itself rather than the under­ly­ing caus­es, fur­ther deep­en­ing the trau­ma that led to the behavior.

Q: What are some effec­tive strate­gies to sup­port healing?

Wash­ing­ton: Heal­ing cir­cles, a group ther­a­peu­tic approach devel­oped to help mil­i­tary vet­er­ans reduce aggres­sion, increase hope and build inter­per­son­al con­nec­tions, has been adapt­ed to youth in cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties and in their com­mu­ni­ties. Trained facil­i­ta­tors help par­tic­i­pants process painful mem­o­ries, devel­op cop­ing skills and rebuild trust with fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties. Par­tic­i­pants agree to con­fi­den­ti­al­i­ty and mutu­al respect, cre­at­ing safe spaces for hon­est expres­sion. The steady, con­sis­tent con­tact with car­ing adults leads to the kind of endur­ing rela­tion­ships that all young peo­ple need to feel safe and sup­port­ed. In New Jer­sey, among the par­tic­i­pants in a heal­ing cir­cle ini­tia­tive, there was a 45% drop in dis­ci­pli­nary infrac­tions, and youth report­ed improved emo­tional reg­ulation and com­mu­ni­ca­tion. These out­comes demon­strate that empa­thy and trust can lead to sig­nif­i­cant change.

Young adult­hood, which lasts well into our 20s, is crit­i­cal for build­ing the social and emo­tion­al skills adults need to suc­ceed. Get­ting the right help dur­ing this impor­tant peri­od of growth can make all the dif­fer­ence for a young per­son try­ing to move in a pos­i­tive direc­tion. Even young peo­ple with vio­lent pasts and child­hood trau­ma can become suc­cess­ful adults if we allow them oppor­tu­ni­ties to re-script their neg­a­tive expe­ri­ences and make amends for the harm they have caused.

There’s also a place for activ­i­ties that spark joy and a sense of pur­pose. Cel­e­brat­ing small vic­to­ries is part of nor­mal­iz­ing hopefulness.

Q: What is the role of cred­i­ble mes­sen­gers in the heal­ing process?

Wash­ing­ton: Cred­i­ble mes­sen­gers are indi­vid­u­als with expe­ri­ence in the jus­tice sys­tem (or sim­i­lar tough envi­ron­ments) who can build trust with youth through empa­thy and shared under­stand­ing. These mes­sen­gers are often from the same com­mu­ni­ties and have sim­i­lar life expe­ri­ences as jus­tice-involved youth, and they can pro­vide guid­ance and serve as role mod­els. Build­ing those trust­ing rela­tion­ships before a young per­son returns home from incar­cer­a­tion, or even before they are incar­cer­at­ed, can help keep young peo­ple on the right track.

Sys­temic bar­ri­ers, how­ev­er, can make it dif­fi­cult for young peo­ple to receive this kind of sup­port. For exam­ple, some states restrict indi­vid­u­als with felony records from work­ing with youth with jus­tice involve­ment. To bet­ter reach young peo­ple, sys­tems should mean­ing­ful­ly part­ner with peo­ple who have relat­able expe­ri­ences to the young peo­ple and can inter­act with them with­out judgment.

Indi­vid­u­als who are clos­est to the expe­ri­ence are often clos­est to the solu­tions. Cred­i­ble mes­sen­gers can show young peo­ple exam­ples of what a suc­cess­ful, law-abid­ing life looks like and what’s pos­si­ble for their futures. 

When cred­i­ble mes­sen­gers them­selves have healed to the point where they are no longer liv­ing in sur­vival mode, they can be open and vul­ner­a­ble with their mentees. A pow­er­ful, trust­ing bond can form, which cre­ates a safe space for young peo­ple to prac­tice man­ag­ing and cop­ing with the feel­ings and sen­sa­tions that come in the after­math of trau­ma. It encour­ages their resilience and transformation.

Learn how New Jer­sey uses heal­ing cir­cles to sup­port youth cop­ing with trauma