Community-Based Aftercare and Reentry Programming for New York City Youth

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. The FY 2014 Second Chance Act Two-Phase Juvenile Reentry Demonstration Program will help ensure that the assessments and services youth receive in secure confinement, reentry planning process, and services and supervision youth receive upon reentry promote reduced recidivism rates and improvements in positive youth outcomes.

New York City's Administration for Children's Services (ACS), in collaboration with the Center for Court Innovation (the Center), seeks a grant to build a Community-Based Aftercare and Reentry Demonstration Program for youth in New York City. Part of a lengthy process to realign the juvenile justice system in New York State, Close to Home (C2H) legislation was signed into law in March 2012. C2H was intended to replace a state-run system where young people were placed in large, institutional settings far from home, disconnected from family and community. Instead, New York City youth will now be placed in small, therapeutic sites close to their own neighborhoods and would remain in city schools. C2H launched in September 2012 when ACS assumed responsibility for New York City youth who were adjudicated juvenile delinquents and found to be in need of placement. With support from OJJDP, ACS seeks to build upon investments made in evidenced-based aftercare services to develop a rich network of community support for justice involved youth and their families. Aftercare youth struggle with school transitions and have difficulty accessing services. To prevent revocations and recidivism, and to improve educational transitions, academic progress and the development of critical skills and competencies among young people, ACS, together with the Center, the New York City Juvenile Justice Advisory Coalition (JJAC), and with the collaboration of community partners, state and local stakeholders and government agencies, will lead a planning and implementation process to expand and enhance the current continuum of reentry and aftercare services in four neighborhoods in New York City with disproportionately high numbers of young people leaving C2H facilities.

The aftercare model will build upon the Center's expertise in community engagement and extensive experience working with court-involved young people and families to provide 1) community engagement and reentry advisory groups for each community location; 2) collaborative pre-release service planning and community-based support and supervision; 3) evidence-based programming to build youth competencies and skills and provide academic support and advocacy and pro-social recreational, cultural and artistic activities; 4) civic and vocational engagement opportunities, including internships, community service learning, and leadership training; and 5) a robust system of graduated sanctions and incentives designed to encourage compliance with dispositional conditions and address adjustment missteps while increasing skills and competencies among youth. CA/NCF