New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services Juvenile Reentry Planning Project

The Second Chance Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-199) provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of incarcerated adults and juveniles who are released from prison, jail, and juvenile residential facilities and are returning to their communities. Approximately 100,000 youthful offenders are confined in juvenile residential facilities on any given day. The FY 2011 Second Chance Act Juvenile Offender Reentry Program helps ensure that the transition the youth make from secure confinement facilities to the community is successful and promotes public safety. A secure confinement facility may include a juvenile detention center, juvenile correctional facility, or staff-secure facility. Eligible juveniles must have been confined under juvenile court jurisdiction. This program is authorized by the Second Chance Act, Pub. L. 110-199, (42 U.S.C. § 3797w). The Second Chance Act authorizes grants to states, territories, units of local government and federally-recognized Indian tribal governments for demonstration projects to promote the safe and successful reintegration into the community of individuals who have been incarcerated or detained.

The New York State Second Chance Act Juvenile Reentry Program will support a planning project to establish a statewide Juvenile Reentry Task Force (JRTF). Building on the cross systems steering committee and workgroups that recently developed a statewide strategic plan for juvenile justice, the JRTF will be comprised of key juvenile justice system stakeholders, including juvenile corrections, local governments, key state agencies, not for profit service providers, advocates, and youth and families with experience in the juvenile justice system. The goal of the JRTF will be to develop a strategic plan for juvenile reentry in New York State.

The juvenile reentry strategic plan will target youth who are returning home from placement in a private facility as a result of an adjudication of delinquency. Strategic planning efforts will be rooted in the principles of effective practice. To that end, analysis and planning will focus on: beginning release planning and service delivery at intake, utilization of standard risk screening and needs assessment to drive release plan development and service referral, and developing plans for reentry services that appropriately match the intensity of services to the individualized risk presented by each child. Because this is a planning effort, data collection will focus on process measures that track the number of engaged stakeholders and the nature and extent of planning efforts. In addition, the effort will result in production of: an analysis of the statutory, regulatory, rules-based and practice-based hurdles to successful juvenile reentry; an analysis of the resources and policy changes necessary for successful plan implementation; a set of outcome measures to utilize to assess efficacy of implementation efforts; and a planning and implementation proposal based on the Planning and Implementation Guide provided by the technical assistance entity.

CA/NCF