JJDPA Set the Foundation for Youth Justice Reform, Administrator Ryan Says
Administrator Liz Ryan highlighted the signature achievements of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) in a September 2024 interview with The Imprint coinciding with the legislation’s 50th anniversary.
The JJDPA established OJJDP and set the first federal standards for the safe and equitable treatment of young people in the juvenile justice system. One of the act’s most significant accomplishments was dramatically reducing the number of kids placed in adult jails across the nation, Administrator Ryan said. That figure dropped from as many as half a million youth annually in 1974 to about 2,000 kids on any given day in 2021. “When the act first passed, one impetus was an overuse of pretrial detention and a placement of kids in dangerous adult jails, even when they weren’t charged with a crime,” Administrator Ryan said. Kids were dying by suicide, she said. "They were being harmed by adults and by staff in those facilities.”
Administrator Ryan stressed that additional work remains, and that policymakers must strive to further reduce the number of youth prosecuted in adult criminal courts. “The data and the research show us that that doesn’t make communities safer, that it exposes kids to the violence in the criminal justice system and that it increases the likelihood that they’ll reoffend,” she said.
Administrator Ryan cited several examples of how states are using Title II Formula Grants that OJJDP awards through the JJDPA, including a program in Georgia to reduce the use of incarceration and expand community-based supports for youth, and one in Maine to create regional care teams to provide wraparound services for kids who are involved in the juvenile justice system.
For 50 years, the JJDPA has proved an effective legislative response to the needs of justice-involved youth; it has been constant in reflecting the changing nature of society. OJJDP’s work will carry this legacy forward to ensure that all youth receive fair and equitable treatment from the juvenile justice system.
Collaborative, Holistic Strategies Help Keep Youth Out of the Justice System
“Youth and Violent Crime,” a three-part webinar series cosponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, OJJDP, and Project Safe Neighborhoods, addressed adolescent brain development and data on youth and crime (October 2), the importance of prevention and early intervention efforts (October 9), and collaborative strategies to reduce crime by youth and redirect young people (October 16). OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan participated in the series, offering opening remarks on October 2 and participating in a panel discussion about intervention strategies with young adults on October 9.
Administrator Ryan’s introductory remarks addressed OJJDP’s holistic approach to juvenile justice work, the Continuum of Care framework. OJJDP’s continuum spans prevention, intervention, treatment, and reentry strategies, which are implemented alongside enforcement strategies and give young people access to resources and services “where they live and at every point in the juvenile justice system,” she said. “The goal is to prevent most youth from entering the juvenile justice system in the first place, and to keep system-involved youth from deeper involvement.”
For the vast majority of young people, the continuum emphasizes prevention and early intervention services. For the small percentage of youth who take part in serious, violent crime, OJJDP resources focus on interventions and treatments that help reduce their likelihood of reoffending and help to stem the flow of youth into the adult criminal justice system.
Project Safe Neighborhoods is a nationwide crime reduction initiative centered on collaboration. Administrator Ryan called the Project Safe Neighborhoods model “an outstanding example of federal, state, local, and Tribal leaders coming together as partners to design and coordinate comprehensive solutions to violent crime and its impact on neighborhoods and the people who live in them.” The webinar series was designed “to enhance the tools in your toolbox,” she told participants, “to help communities create innovative and effective strategies that address crime and prevent violence from happening.”
The National District Attorneys Association hosted the series.
Children of Incarcerated Parents and Their Caregivers Discuss Their Needs at OJJDP Listening Sessions
OJJDP held two listening sessions in October 2024 with youth, parents, caregivers, and correctional leaders to learn how federal programs—including OJJDP’s Second Chance Act Addressing the Needs of Incarcerated Parents and Their Minor Children program—can expand their support of children whose parents are in jail or prison.
Titled “Strength in Stories: Understanding the Journey of Children with Incarcerated Parents,” the virtual sessions also addressed Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Bill of Rights, a document published in 2003 to raise awareness about the needs of children with incarcerated parents. The sessions were an opportunity to bring together federal partners that have a direct impact on programs and services for children of incarcerated parents, including the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Department of Education, National Institute of Corrections, Bureau of Justice Assistance, and Department of Health and Human Services.
The two listening sessions underscored the importance of listening to youth and parents with lived experience about the challenges they face. Participants voiced concerns about stigmatizing language used when referring to children of incarcerated parents and discriminatory policies associated with services intended to support familial connections. They also emphasized the need to include the community in programming for impacted youth and embrace the perspective of youth in all systems that affect them. Corrections administrators talked about programs created to help incarcerated parents maintain relationships with their children.
OJJDP will use feedback from the sessions to improve Office programs that support children of incarcerated parents—Second Chance Act Addressing the Needs of Incarcerated Parents and Their Minor Children, Mentoring for Children of Incarcerated Parents, and Family-Based Alternative Justice.
Maine’s Regional Care Teams Seek To Reduce System Involvement by Answering Youth Needs
Funding awarded under OJJDP's Title II Formula Grants Program supports state and local efforts to address and prevent delinquency and improve state juvenile justice systems. Maine is using Title II funding to continue its support of Regional Care Teams (RCTs), a network of multidisciplinary and multiagency community response teams that serve youth involved in the juvenile justice system or those at risk of involvement. RCTs leverage these cross-system teams to keep young people in the community and prevent deeper involvement in Maine’s justice system.
Teams include representatives from youth-serving agencies and organizations, as well as other community providers and stakeholders. They meet monthly to exchange resources and discuss youth referrals, focusing on a community-based continuum of care comprising prevention efforts; early, intermediate, and intensive intervention efforts; out-of-home treatment; and community reintegration. Youth receive individualized, strengths-based support to respond to their needs, keep them connected to their communities, and help prevent further system involvement.
The RCT initiative launched in 2020. Between 2020 and 2023, RCTs received 231 referrals for 165 individual youth; 99 percent had a known history of juvenile justice system involvement at the time of referral. Youth referred to RCTs most frequently need family and relationship support (39 percent), housing assistance (39 percent), and safety or supervision, often to help deescalate situations for young people in crisis and at risk of harming themselves or others (37 percent).
RCTs are a partnership between the Maine Department of Corrections, the Place Matters team at the University of Southern Maine's Catherine Cutler Institute, and the Center for Youth Policy and Law at the University of Maine School of Law.