Resources for Juvenile Probation Reform

Most young peo­ple who enter the nation’s juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem wind up on pro­ba­tion, and pro­ba­tion plays a piv­otal role in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem. In 2021, the most cur­rent year for which data are avail­able, near­ly 150,000 young peo­ple were giv­en some form of juve­nile pro­ba­tion. Almost half of these young peo­ple either are nev­er found delin­quent in court or are found to have com­mit­ted sta­tus offens­es ― con­duct that would not be a crime for adults, such as skip­ping school or pos­sess­ing alcohol.

Giv­en research on ado­les­cent behav­ior and brain devel­op­ment and evi­dence about inter­ven­tions that con­sis­tent­ly reduce delin­quen­cy, guid­ance is avail­able now to get juve­nile pro­ba­tion right. Below are resources that were pro­duced or fund­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion and pro­vide key tips, tools and rec­om­men­da­tions for trans­form­ing juve­nile pro­ba­tion and the youth jus­tice sys­tem. They are orga­nized here to help users find the right resource for their needs.

EXPLAIN­ERS

These resources pro­vide clear and con­cise infor­ma­tion about the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem, mak­ing com­plex terms and ideas acces­si­ble to a wide audience.

PUB­LI­CA­TIONS

• What Is Juve­nile Justice?
• What Is Diver­sion in Juve­nile Justice
• Fre­quent­ly Asked Ques­tions About Juve­nile Probation
• What Are Sta­tus Offens­es and Why Do They Matter
• Juve­nile Deten­tion Explained
• What Is Restora­tive Jus­tice for Young People?
• Youth Incar­cer­a­tion in the Unit­ed States

VIDEOS

• Casey’s YouTube playlist for Trans­form­ing Juve­nile Probation
• Trans­form­ing Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion: A three-minute explain­er video
• Youth Pro­ba­tion Offi­cers: Coach­es, Not Referees
• Com­mu­ni­ty-led Youth Diver­sion From the Legal System
• Trans­form­ing a Juve­nile Facil­i­ty Into a Com­mu­ni­ty Hub in Hous­ton, Texas

PRO­BA­TION TRANSFORMATION

Juve­nile jus­tice pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion aims to fun­da­men­tal­ly change the way juve­nile pro­ba­tion sys­tems oper­ate. Rather than focus­ing sole­ly on pun­ish­ment and con­trol, this approach empha­sizes pos­i­tive youth devel­op­ment, reha­bil­i­ta­tion and com­mu­ni­ty-based solutions.

TEN CORE PRIN­CI­PLES OF PRO­BA­TION TRANSFORMATION

The Amer­i­can Pro­ba­tion and Parole Asso­ci­a­tion (APPA) issued a call to action for juve­nile jus­tice agen­cies nation­wide to adopt a set of core pro­ba­tion prin­ci­ples that help young peo­ple desist from delin­quent behav­ior and achieve long-term suc­cess. APPA is a com­mu­ni­ty super­vi­sion pro­fes­sion­al asso­ci­a­tion with more than 30,000 mem­bers. It joins a grow­ing num­ber of orga­ni­za­tions call­ing for more effec­tive approach­es to juve­nile pro­ba­tion — such as indi­vid­u­al­ized case plans and incen­tives — that moti­vate pos­i­tive youth behavior.

TRANS­FORM­ING JUVE­NILE PRO­BA­TION: A VISION FOR GET­TING IT RIGHT

Explore how pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion fun­da­men­tal­ly reimag­ines how pro­ba­tion offi­cers work and whom they work with. Trans­form­ing Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion exam­ines and address­es what’s in the way of get­ting pro­ba­tion right, from struc­ture and cul­ture to resources, rela­tion­ships and more. Gain a greater under­stand­ing of how to use com­mu­ni­ty-led diver­sion to hold youth account­able, away from the jus­tice sys­tem entire­ly and sup­port youth on pro­ba­tion who have seri­ous offend­ing his­to­ries and com­plex needs.

Read the case for elim­i­nat­ing con­fine­ment as a response to pro­ba­tion rule violations

TRANS­FORM­ING JUVE­NILE PRO­BA­TION PLAYLIST

A vari­ety of webi­nar record­ings offer acces­si­ble, flex­i­ble and inter­ac­tive learn­ing expe­ri­ences. They fea­ture expert pre­sen­ta­tions and facil­i­tat­ed Q&A ses­sions that are ide­al for under­stand­ing juve­nile jus­tice con­cepts at your own pace.

RESOURCES FOR PRACTITIONERS

Curat­ed resources allow juve­nile jus­tice prac­ti­tion­ers to effec­tive­ly man­age cas­es, build rela­tion­ships, pro­vide com­pre­hen­sive ser­vices, make data-dri­ven deci­sions and enhance their pro­fes­sion­al development.

DECI­SION TOOLS FOR READI­NESS FOR PRO­BA­TION TRANSFORMATION

25 Ques­tions for Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion Trans­for­ma­tion: Readi­ness Self-Assess­ment Tool for Pro­ba­tion Lead­ers helps juris­dic­tions deter­mine whether they are ready to trans­form prac­tices to pro­mote youth devel­op­ment instead of pulling young peo­ple deep­er into the sys­tem. The tool’s 25-state­ment for­mat is based on the Foundation’s vision for trans­form­ing juve­nile pro­ba­tion, which requires deci­sion mak­ers and oth­er prac­ti­tion­ers to think and act dif­fer­ent­ly to pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for young people.

THE DESK­TOP GUIDE TO GOOD JUVE­NILE PRO­BA­TION PRACTICE

The desk­top guide was pro­duced by the Nation­al Cen­ter for Juve­nile Jus­tice, and is a search­able online resource for juve­nile pro­ba­tion offi­cers, judges and court staff is a search­able, online resource.

JUS­TICELINK

This online com­mu­ni­ty for youth jus­tice reform­ers — work­ing both in and out­side the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem — to con­nect with each oth­er, offer mutu­al sup­port and share best prac­tices, events and oppor­tu­ni­ties. Reg­is­ter for the Jus­ticeLink Slack chan­nel here.

PRO-DATA

Casey’s free online tool sup­ports data-dri­ven deci­sion-mak­ing and data trans­paren­cy in youth jus­tice at the local and state lev­els. This online tool is open to all juris­dic­tions after a live demon­stra­tion, which can be sched­uled here.

THE ROLE OF THE JUDGE IN TRANS­FORM­ING JUVE­NILE PRO­BA­TION: A TOOLK­IT FOR LEADERSHIP

The Nation­al Coun­cil of Juve­nile and Fam­i­ly Court Judges devel­oped the tool kit specif­i­cal­ly for its con­stituen­cy of judges.

TRAIN­ING FOR AGENCY STAFF

The Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion Trans­for­ma­tion Train­ing Series spans sev­en inter­ac­tive ses­sions and is avail­able for free online. Casey designed the cours­es pri­mar­i­ly for pro­ba­tion lead­ers, super­vi­sors and staff and their com­mu­ni­ty part­ners, based on the lev­el of detail and types of reflec­tion ques­tions and activ­i­ties. Par­tic­i­pants learn, reflect on and apply strate­gies that make fun­da­men­tal changes to the struc­ture and cul­ture of probation.

YOUTH JUS­TICE RESOURCE LIBRARY

This search­able data­base hous­es near­ly 300 resources from more than 100 dif­fer­ent orga­ni­za­tions. An exam­ple is step-by-step guid­ance for juve­nile jus­tice state advi­so­ry groups to bet­ter under­stand and sup­port pro­ba­tion trans­for­ma­tion, released by the Coali­tion for Juve­nile Jus­tice.

EXPAND­ING DIVER­SION FROM JUS­TICE INVOLVEMENT

Diver­sion from the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem is cru­cial for reform because it reduces the num­ber of young peo­ple who enter the sys­tem, min­i­miz­ing the neg­a­tive impacts of incar­cer­a­tion. Divert­ing youth from the for­mal jus­tice sys­tem can reduce recidi­vism rates, improve pub­lic safe­ty and pro­mote pos­i­tive youth development.

DIVER­SION: A HID­DEN KEY TO COM­BAT­ING RACIAL AND ETH­NIC DIS­PAR­I­TIES IN JUVE­NILE JUSTICE

This report from the Sen­tenc­ing Project empha­sizes racial dis­par­i­ties in juve­nile jus­tice and advo­cates for increased diver­sion to improve out­comes, reduce neg­a­tive con­se­quences and pro­mote equi­ty. It out­lines sev­en steps to achieve this goal, includ­ing pol­i­cy changes, data col­lec­tion and oversight.

EXPAND THE USE OF DIVER­SION FROM THE JUVE­NILE JUS­TICE SYSTEM

Arrest­ing young peo­ple and for­mal­ly pro­cess­ing their cas­es in juve­nile court increas­es their like­li­hood of sub­se­quent arrests, school strug­gles and employ­ment chal­lenges. This brief argues for more diver­sion in juve­nile jus­tice to help low-risk youth avoid neg­a­tive con­se­quences of court involvement.

Learn more about diver­sion in this one-page chart on best prac­tices for effec­tive diversion

INCREASE SUC­CESS­FUL DIVER­SION FOR YOUTH OF COLOR

This pub­li­ca­tion advo­cates for increased diver­sion in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem, espe­cial­ly for Black youth who are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly referred to court. It high­lights the neg­a­tive impact of for­mal pro­cess­ing on youth’s future and empha­sizes the need for equi­table diver­sion practices.

JUVE­NILE JUS­TICE: YOUNG PEO­PLE AND RESTORA­TIVE JUSTICE

This report from the Nation­al Con­fer­ence of State Leg­is­la­tures exam­ines restora­tive jus­tice as a promis­ing way for com­mu­ni­ties and law­mak­ers to under­stand and respond to crime.

Read R Street Insti­tute’s con­ser­v­a­tive case for restora­tive justice

TALK­ING ABOUT YOUTH PRO­BA­TION, DIVER­SION AND RESTORA­TIVE JUSTICE

This dig­i­tal tool kit lever­ages pub­lic per­cep­tion research to help juve­nile jus­tice prac­ti­tion­ers and oth­er experts become bet­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tors to advance reforms. It includes core mes­sages and nar­ra­tives to enhance pub­lic under­stand­ing of diver­sion from courts, restora­tive jus­tice and youth probation.

RETHINK­ING PRO­BA­TION TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Pro­ba­tion terms should be no longer than nec­es­sary to con­nect youth with any need­ed com­mu­ni­ty sup­port and ser­vices and should be designed to min­i­mize dis­rup­tion to young people’s lives and development.

RESTRUC­TUR­ING PRO­BA­TION TERMS TO PRO­MOTE SUCCESS

This Urban Insti­tute guide out­lines a new way of think­ing about juve­nile pro­ba­tion terms and the process­es for end­ing them, pro­vid­ing research-informed guid­ance to struc­ture terms that pro­mote youth success.

BREAK­ING THE RULES: RETHINK­ING CON­DI­TION SET­TING AND ENFORCE­MENT IN JUVE­NILE PROBATION

The Coun­cil of State Gov­ern­ments pub­lished a tool kit for juve­nile pro­ba­tion agen­cies, courts and their part­ners to work togeth­er to reform their cur­rent approach­es to con­di­tion set­ting and enforcement.

RACIAL EQUI­TY AND PROBATION

As the most com­mon dis­po­si­tion in youth jus­tice, pro­ba­tion plays a large role in per­pet­u­at­ing the vast and con­tin­u­ing over­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Black, Lati­no and oth­er youth of col­or in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem. As the most com­mon dis­po­si­tion, pro­ba­tion plays a large role in per­pet­u­at­ing the vast and con­tin­u­ing over­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Black, Lati­no and oth­er youth of col­or in juve­nile jus­tice. In 2021, the most cur­rent year for which data is avail­able, 53% of all pro­ba­tion dis­po­si­tions involved youth of col­or — far high­er than their share of the total youth pop­u­la­tion (48%). Even more wor­ri­some, 64% of young peo­ple held in res­i­den­tial cus­tody in 2021 for a tech­ni­cal vio­la­tion were youth of col­or — which usu­al­ly involves break­ing pro­ba­tion rules rather than being charged with a new offense.

A CALL TO ACTION: JUVE­NILE PRO­BA­TION AND RACIAL JUSTICE

This Q&A with Steve Bish­op sug­gests how pro­ba­tion lead­ers and line staff could help address sys­temic racism. He says an hon­est account­ing of probation’s role in per­pet­u­at­ing racial dis­par­i­ties is nec­es­sary to advance any long-term efforts at reform.

A CHECK­LIST FOR JUVE­NILE PRO­BA­TION AGEN­CIES ON RACIAL AND ETH­NIC EQUI­TY AND INCLUSION

Casey offers con­crete steps that juve­nile pro­ba­tion agen­cies can take to pro­mote racial equi­ty and inclu­sion in this 15-item check­list.

LEAD­ING WITH RACE TO REIMAG­INE YOUTH JUS­TICE: JDAI’S DEEP-END INITIATIVE

Lead­ing With Race to Reimag­ine Youth Jus­tice explores the Foundation’s part­ner­ship with juve­nile jus­tice juris­dic­tions work­ing to safe­ly and sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce youth con­fine­ment — espe­cial­ly for young peo­ple of color.

INVOLV­ING AND SUP­PORT­ING YOUTH AND FAMILIES

Involv­ing youth and fam­i­lies in juve­nile jus­tice deci­sion mak­ing improves out­comes by fos­ter­ing trust, reduc­ing recidi­vism and pro­mot­ing fair­ness. Their insights lead to more effec­tive inter­ven­tions and com­mu­ni­ty-based solutions.

FAM­I­LY-ENGAGED CASE PLAN­NING FOR YOUTH ON PROBATION

To improve the odds of young peo­ple suc­ceed­ing on juve­nile pro­ba­tion and beyond, the Foun­da­tion has released a prac­tice guide that helps juve­nile jus­tice agen­cies insti­tute fam­i­ly-engaged case plan­ning. Under this new mod­el, pro­ba­tion offi­cers for­mu­late case plans through a col­lab­o­ra­tive process with young peo­ple and their families.

FAM­I­LY ENGAGE­MENT IN THE JUVE­NILE JUS­TICE SYS­TEM: GUID­ANCE FRAME-WORK AND ACTION PLANNER

The Cen­ter for Juve­nile Jus­tice Reform at George­town Uni­ver­si­ty offers strate­gies for pro­ba­tion offi­cers to build authen­tic part­ner­ships with the young peo­ple on their case­loads and the youths’ fam­i­ly members.

INSIGHTS FROM YOUNG PEOPLE

The Pro­ba­tion Expe­ri­ence Project exam­ines what is — and what is not — work­ing in youth pro­ba­tion accord­ing to young peo­ple and fam­i­lies. Young peo­ple and fam­i­lies tell youth jus­tice prac­ti­tion­ers, advo­cates and pol­i­cy mak­ers how pro­ba­tion can live up to its mis­sion, and these insights reveal points of progress and areas of opportunity.

Read a relat­ed guide on achiev­ing mean­ing­ful, authen­tic engage­ment with young people

SUB­SCRIBE TO THE JUVE­NILE JUS­TICE NEWS

To stay up to date on Casey resources focused on trans­form­ing juve­nile pro­ba­tion, sub­scribe to the Foundation’s Juve­nile Jus­tice News, a month­ly e‑newsletter.