OJJDP Annual Report 1998: State Challenge Activities

For the past several years, practitioners and policymakers alike have called for an overhaul of State juvenile justice systems. They point to a variety of problems, including moderately crowded, understaffed, and dilapidated detention and correctional facilities; insufficient services for young people with significant health, emotional, and education needs; overrepresentation of minority youth in the juvenile justice system; high recidivism because of inadequate programs and community aftercare services; and overburdened judges, court staff, pretrial services personnel, prosecutors, juvenile defenders, and probation officers.

Congress initially responded to these problems in 1992 by enacting the State Challenge Activities Program, which has been funded at $10 million each year beginning with FY 1994. The State Challenge Activities Program provides financial incentives for States to improve their juvenile justice systems by addressing 1 or more of 10 program areas specified by Congress. State agencies may carry out Challenge Activities or award subgrants to public and private agencies to develop and implement activities. The State Challenge Activities Program, however, is designed to go beyond making grants to specific communities and individuals—it is intended to improve States' juvenile justice systems by stimulating positive systemic change.

Only those States participating in the Formula Grants Program are eligible to receive State Challenge grants. In FY 1998, 52 jurisdictions received State Challenge allocations. Allocations for States and the District of Columbia ranged from $87,500 to $1,142,000; American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands each received $15,000.

The 10 State Challenge Activities include the following: basic system services, access to counsel, community-based alternatives, violent juvenile offender facilities, gender bias policies and programs, State ombudsman offices, deinstitutionalization of status offenders and nonoffenders, alternatives to suspension and expulsion, aftercare services, and State agency coordination/case review systems. The 10 Challenge Activities are further described below. Activities in these 10 areas move States toward juvenile justice systems that support, in a consistent and collaborative manner, the development and implementation of programs that build on youth strengths, empower parents and strengthen families, ensure gender equity, and deliver community-based services (including prevention, intervention, and aftercare) to youth and their families.

Florida examined 11 programs providing alternatives to school suspension and expulsion. The purpose of the study was to determine which factors were consistently associated with program success. The State recruited a graduate student to collect data and conduct interviews about program implementation, services, staffing, target population, community involvement, data collection, and staff and participant satisfaction. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice plans to use findings from this project to provide funding opportunities for model alternatives to suspension and expulsion. Florida's use of graduate students to conduct program evaluation and other research projects through a partnership with its university system is a cost-effective way to gather useful information for guiding systems change.

Under the different Challenge areas, a multitude of programs have been implemented. Some affect a relatively small number of youth and families. On the other hand, many States have used the unique opportunities presented by State challenge funds to effect far-reaching systemic changes in their juvenile justice systems. During FY 1998, nearly all of the participating States addressed at least 2 activities (as has been the case in past years); 12 States addressed 3 activities; and 1 State addressed 4 activities.

The Challenge Activities most often addressed during FY 1998 were alternatives to suspension and expulsion (23 States), community-based alternatives (20 States), and aftercare services (20 States). The Challenge Activities least often addressed in FY 1998 were violent juvenile offender facilities (1 State), State ombudsman offices (1 State), and State agency coordination/case review systems (3 States). The same three Challenge Activities have been the least frequently chosen in each year since FY 1995. Related charts summarizing State Challenge Activities appear below.

States have taken a variety of approaches to implementing State Challenge Activities. In spring 1998, OJJDP invited each State to submit descriptions of its State Challenge initiatives and products that have resulted from them; 24 States and 1 territory responded. Eleven different themes of system change efforts emerged from a study of the materials submitted. The themes are not an exhaustive list of every attempted State Challenge effort, but they do illustrate the wide variety of approaches adopted by States. The 11 themes are:

State Challenge Activities

Challenge Activity A. Developing and adopting policies and programs to provide basic health, mental health, and educational services to youth in the juvenile justice system.

Challenge Activity B. Developing and adopting policies and programs to provide all juveniles in the justice system access to counsel.

Challenge Activity C. Increasing community-based alternatives to incarceration by establishing programs (such as expanded use of probation, mediation, restitution, community service, treatment, home detention, intensive supervision, and electronic monitoring) and developing and adopting a set of objective criteria for the appropriate placement of juveniles in detention and secure confinement.

Challenge Activity D. Developing and adopting policies and programs to provide secure settings for violent juvenile offenders by closing down traditional training schools and replacing them with secure settings that have capacities of no more than 50 youth and staff-youth ratios sufficient to permit close supervision and effective treatment.

Challenge Activity E. Developing and adopting policies to prohibit gender bias in juvenile placement and treatment and establishing programs to ensure female youth access to the full range of health and mental health services (including treatment for physical or sexual assault or abuse), educational opportunities, training and vocational services, instruction in self-defense, and instruction in parenting.

Challenge Activity F. Establishing and operating, either directly or by contract, a State Ombudsman office for children, youth, and families to investigate and resolve complaints relating to actions, inactions, or decisions of those providing out-of-home care to children and youth.

Challenge Activity G. Developing and adopting policies and programs to remove status offenders from the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, when appropriate.

Challenge Activity H. Developing and adopting policies and programs designed to serve as alternatives to suspension and expulsion.

Challenge Activity I. Increasing aftercare services by establishing programs and developing and adopting policies to provide comprehensive health, mental health, education, family, and vocational services to youth upon release from the juvenile justice system.

Challenge Activity J. Developing and adopting policies to establish a State administrative structure to develop program and fiscal policies for children with emotional or behavioral problems and their families. The structure would coordinate the activities of major child-serving systems and implement a statewide case review system.