San Francisco Juvenile Collaborative Reentry Team Initiative

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 jails, prisons, and juvenile residential facilities and are returning to communities. This program helps ensure that the transition the youth make from a secure juvenile residential facility to the community is successful and promotes public safety. A secure juvenile residential facility may include a juvenile detention center, juvenile correctional facility, or staff-secure facility. Juveniles must have been confined under juvenile court jurisdiction to be eligible under this initiative. This program is authorized by 42 USC 3797w and Public Law 110-199.

The San Francisco Juvenile Collaborative Reentry Team (JCRT), established in 2009 as a Second Chance Act National Demonstration Project Site, provides coordinated and comprehensive reentry case planning and aftercare services for high need youths in out-of-home placement with the goals of reducing recidivism and placement failure and increasing public safety. The expanded Juvenile Collaborative Reentry Unit (JCRU) will include representation by the Juvenile Probation Department (SFJPD), the San Francisco Public Defender's Office (SFPDO), the Private Bar Panel and the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ), and will be overseen by a dedicated judge in the Office of Collaborative Justice Programs (Juvenile & Family Programs) of the Superior Court of California. The expanded program will establish a Reentry Unit within the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department that will include a dedicated probation officer, public defender, and community based organization staff who will develop and oversee comprehensive aftercare plans for youth returning from long term commitments including out-of-home placements and San Francisco's Log Cabin Ranch. The initiative will serve up to 150 unduplicated youths per year. The JCRU will incorporate evidence-based practices such as Team Decision Making with youth and their families, risk-need assessments through the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument (YASI) and Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS), coordination by a collaborative court, and individualized case planning coordinated jointly with supervision and aftercare staff and beginning shortly after commitment. All required performance measures will be tracked by the SFJPD in partnership with the Public Defender's Office, the Private Bar, and community-based providers of aftercare services.

CA/NCF