In September 2008, New York Governor David Paterson created the Task Force on Transforming Juvenile Justice to establish a statewide process to improve the juvenile justice system. The task force was charged with creating a blueprint to strengthen alternatives to institutional placement for young offenders, improve residential care, and enhance reentry programming. It also addressed the disproportionate number of minority youth in the system. The task force was chaired by Jeremy Travis, president of New York City’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Members included representatives from the Office of Children and Family Services, law enforcement, advocacy organizations, county and state agencies, academia, and the judiciary. Vera’s Center on Youth Justice provided technical assistance by gathering data and facilitating discussion on ways to implement systemic changes.

The Promise for Success Initiative (PSI) was a year-long planning effort to improve services for youth who are at risk of entering or are already involved in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems in Doña Ana County, New Mexico. To achieve this goal, the Center on Youth Justice worked with the PSI steering committee to develop a comprehensive, community-based strategic plan for making services more accessible to at-risk youth and implementing crisis response capacity designed to keep youth from becoming involved in the system. The plan, which was released in 2008, also included a continuum of graduated sanctions for youth who are arrested.