How Two JDAI Sites Are Accelerating Youth Justice Reforms During the Pandemic

In response to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, juve­nile jus­tice sys­tems across the coun­try have reduced their use of unnec­es­sary youth con­fine­ment — an out­come long advo­cat­ed for by Annie E. Casey Foundation.

“The glob­al pan­dem­ic has moti­vat­ed a grow­ing num­ber of juris­dic­tions to make reforms that reflect what research says is best for young peo­ple: They belong with their fam­i­lies — not in insti­tu­tions,” says Rob Geen, direc­tor of Pol­i­cy Reform and Advo­ca­cy at the Foun­da­tion. ​“When the pub­lic health cri­sis is over, juve­nile jus­tice sys­tems should col­lec­tive­ly com­mit to nev­er going back to unnec­es­sar­i­ly lock­ing up kids to ensure their appear­ance in court.”

Ques­tions to help juve­nile jus­tice agen­cies reduce youth detention

Even short stays in deten­tion facil­i­ties have harm­ful effects on youth, includ­ing the increased like­li­hood of recidi­vism. The Foundation’s Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive^® (JDAI^®) has demon­strat­ed more effec­tive and equi­table ways to keep young peo­ple safe and on track for long-term suc­cess while still hold­ing them account­able for their actions. Two JDAI sites — the state of Mary­land and Har­ris Coun­ty, Texas — pro­vide exam­ples of juris­dic­tions accel­er­at­ing deten­tion reform dur­ing the pandemic.

Mary­land

Respond­ing to a peti­tion by the Mary­land Office of the Pub­lic Defend­er in April 2020, the state’s chief judge instruct­ed low­er courts to con­sid­er the pan­dem­ic when mak­ing deci­sions about con­fin­ing youth accused of delin­quent acts. Judi­cial action result­ed in the release of approx­i­mate­ly 60% of Maryland’s youth from incar­cer­a­tion and the expand­ed use of alter­na­tives to deten­tion (ATD) by the state’s Depart­ment of Juve­nile Services.

“Youth who were released on ATD attend­ed court hear­ings and remained offense free while await­ing their hear­ings at vir­tu­al­ly the same high rates as before and, in some cas­es, per­formed bet­ter than pri­or groups,” says Sam J. Abed, sec­re­tary of Maryland’s Depart­ment of Juve­nile Services.

For­tu­nate­ly, inno­va­tions cre­at­ed to address the pan­dem­ic are poised to out­last the cri­sis, accord­ing to Abed. New pro­ce­dures and prac­tices include reg­u­lar statewide reviews to expe­dite releas­es; shift­ing com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices to the front end of the sys­tem as diver­sion options; and com­mu­ni­ty super­vi­sion changes — for exam­ple, con­nect­ing with youth via video chats instead of in-per­son vis­its to the department.

For now, Mary­land has made only lim­it­ed progress in address­ing racial dis­par­i­ties, with young peo­ple of col­or con­sti­tut­ing approx­i­mate­ly 80% of all youth in its deten­tion and res­i­den­tial facil­i­ties. Yet, such progress is still ​“remark­able,” accord­ing to Abed, who notes that past state efforts have failed to real­ize even these small gains. The recent reforms ​“should be pre­served and stud­ied so that the crit­i­cal aspects can be repli­cat­ed,” he says.

A statewide group includ­ing leg­is­la­tors and advo­cates is cur­rent­ly exam­in­ing which new deten­tion reforms should be embed­ded in state law.

Har­ris Coun­ty, Texas

In Har­ris Coun­ty, home to Hous­ton, the Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion Depart­ment has been work­ing with judges and oth­er juve­nile jus­tice stake­hold­ers to devel­op plans for safe­ly releas­ing young peo­ple in detention.

“COVID-19 lit a fire in Har­ris Coun­ty,” says Hen­ry Gon­za­les, the department’s exec­u­tive direc­tor. ​“Every­one has gone the extra mile to keep young peo­ple safe and out of con­fine­ment. From Jan­u­ary to May, we cut our deten­tion pop­u­la­tion in half, bring­ing the pop­u­la­tion to its low­est lev­el in more than 30 years.”

The county’s two res­i­den­tial facil­i­ties, which housed about 100 young peo­ple pre-pan­dem­ic, have expe­ri­enced sim­i­lar drops in youth con­fine­ment. One facil­i­ty has tem­porar­i­ly closed and the oth­er now serves around 20 youth. Also encour­ag­ing: Among all the young peo­ple released from these facil­i­ties, just three have end­ed up back in con­fine­ment, accord­ing to the lat­est data.

One key play­er in all this progress? Com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions that take refer­rals from the pro­ba­tion depart­ment. The faith-based non­prof­it reVi­sion, for exam­ple, has a suc­cess­ful track record of men­tor­ing young peo­ple who are incar­cer­at­ed. In the last few months, reVi­sion has reached out to fam­i­lies of released youth to assess and meet their needs. With the pan­dem­ic increas­ing unem­ploy­ment, some fam­i­lies need­ed assis­tance fil­ing for unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits. Oth­ers need­ed help nav­i­gat­ing rental assis­tance plans. reVi­sion has also pro­vid­ed more than 100 fam­i­lies and count­ing with food and hot meals.

Like Mary­land, Har­ris Coun­ty has made only lim­it­ed progress in reduc­ing racial and eth­nic dis­par­i­ties, with chil­dren of col­or more like­ly to be locked up for the same behav­ior as their white coun­ter­parts. Gon­za­les is hope­ful, how­ev­er, that a new screen­ing tool for deten­tion will help to decrease the over­all pop­u­la­tion while also reduc­ing racial and eth­nic disparities.

When asked if Har­ris Coun­ty would main­tain its COVID-relat­ed reforms after the health cri­sis end­ed, Gon­za­les is also opti­mistic. ​“I hope that this is the new nor­mal,” he says.

Read Casey’s call to action on juve­nile probation