Latest Developments / Overview
Vera's Center on Youth Justice provides support to state and local governments interested in improving and reforming their juvenile justice systems. By providing an integrated mix of technical assistance, research, and planning services, the center on Youth Justice is uniquely positioned to enhance rational decision-making in juvenile justice processes and support system reforms that deinstitutionalize court-involved youth while ensuring public safety. The core elements of our work are research and data analysis, facilitated strategic planning, and planning and demonstrating solutions—each of which is described below.
Research and Data Analysis: Center staff help government by designing and distributing data requests and developing and validating standardized assessment tools. We also analyze system and administrative data, conduct program and process evaluations, and communicate our research findings to policymakers in an accessible fashion. Some examples of our work in this area include:
- working with New York City stakeholders to develop and validate a detention risk assessment instrument that will gauge the level of risk a youth presents in re-offending or failing to appear in court during the duration of a court proceeding, and
- evaluating whether the city's approach to intake and assessment for status offenders—youth who are not in trouble with the law but who chronically misbehave—is helping the kids and families it serves. This evaluation is a continuation of an earlier study conducted by the center that resulted in the report, A Study of New York City's Family Assessment Program.
Facilitated Strategic Planning: The Center on Youth Justice supports the work of local steering committees or statewide task forces charged with developing or implementing targeted juvenile justice system reforms. Center staff play an ongoing role by working with officials to set manageable benchmarks and agendas, facilitating meetings, and structuring a productive process for reform. We often invite successful practitioners—our associates—to share their experiences developing and implementing similar reforms in their own jurisdictions. For example:
- New York State's Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) has contracted with the center to offer a program geared toward reducing reliance on detention for court-involved youth, shortening detention lengths of stay, and providing more sound outcomes for young people and their families in the community. As part of this project, we are providing strategic planning assistance to three upstate New York counties—Onondaga (Syracuse), Erie (Buffalo), and Albany—and New York City.
- The center is convening and facilitating a task force responsible for developing statewide system indicators to inform local juvenile justice planning in New York State.
- The center is providing technical assistance to New York City's Administration for Children's Services regarding the implementation of a new initiative that provides alternative-to-placement programs for delinquent youth.
Planning and Demonstrating Solutions: In partnership with government, we plan and develop projects that demonstrate innovative solutions to problems in the juvenile justice system. Vera has three ongoing juvenile justice demonstrations—Adolescent Portable Therapy (APT), Esperanza and the Adolescent Reentry Initiative (ARI)—and center staff are currently planning new innovations. For example, in collaboration with OCFS and New York City's Criminal Justice Coordinator's Office, Vera is planning a new demonstration project that will strive to prevent inappropriate reliance on juvenile detention; ensure detention decisions are based on a rational, evidence-based assessment instrument; and confirm youth who are not detained appear in court and do not re-offend during the duration of their petition.