When the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention met during Second Chance Month, council presentations and discussion focused on issues impacting youth who reenter the community after incarceration. The Department of Labor hosted the April 19, 2023, meeting.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta welcomed council members, noting that each of the agencies and organizations represented provides services and resources that assist youth during reentry. She commented on the significance of meeting at the Labor Department, given the critical roles employment and vocational training play during that transition, and highlighted the department’s Reentry Employment Opportunities program. Services funded by the initiative include apprenticeships and job placement, mentoring, expungement of juvenile records, and opportunities for restorative justice.

Brent Parton, the Labor Department’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, told the council that his agency has been exploring how the nation’s workforce system can be more accessible for youth. “How do we build the wiring of a system for young people—whether they are justice-involved, whether they are at-risk—to be able to access services, no matter which door they come in first?” he asked.

“When young people with lived experience take the time to share their insights and their recommendations, it is really our responsibility to listen to what they have to say. Their insights help shape our agenda.”

—OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan

Lisa Johnson, Director of the National Institute for Working and Learning, discussed the Labor Department’s Compass Rose Collaborative, a reentry program targeting young people in jurisdictions with high rates of poverty and crime. The program emphasizes collaboration with community-based service providers, employers, and other partners. An initial project helped youth access numerous services, including housing, clothing, food, and transportation; mental health counseling; legal services; and work readiness, job placement, and educational services. A second project emphasized community-based partnerships that would empower young adults as they move beyond the program.

Of the 1,147 young adults who participated in the two projects between 2017 and 2021, 76 percent found employment and 2 percent were reincarcerated. Results like these show “that with extra time and attention and supportive services, positive things happen,” Ms. Johnson said.

Representatives from the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service briefed the council on two community-based nutrition programs. The Child and Adult Food Care Program reimburses programs that provide meals to youth who participate in afterschool care programs or live in emergency shelters. The Summer Food Service Program reimburses providers serving free meals to youth from low-income areas. OJJDP sent a letter to stakeholders with information about these programs, Administrator Liz Ryan told the council. Food insecurity could increase after May 11, 2023, she said, when the COVID-19 public health emergency ends and many Americans lose access to benefits they have relied on.

During a report by the council’s programs and practice subcommittee, members recommended that the council cosponsor OJJDP’s National Training Conference in November 2024, and plan a series of workshops addressing recommendations made by youth leaders at the council’s October 2022 meeting. The council approved the recommendation.