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January 2008
In January 2008, the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) and Arkansas’ Division of Youth Services (DYS) became partners in an effort to reduce the state’s reliance on incarceration, and increase its capacity to serve youth in their communities. With funding provided by the JEHT Foundation[1], NCYL will consult with DYS to make recommendations for the Division’s juvenile justice reform plan. Under the terms of the agreement between NCYL and DYS, NCYL Senior Attorney Pat Arthur will prepare a report outlining reform recommendations, including budget implications for 2010-2011. It is anticipated that the report will be used in support of the Division’s biennial budget request. The report will include a recommendation for the development of a long-term strategic plan.
Pat Arthur first began working in Arkansas in Fall 2006 to address concerns about abuses at the Alexander Juvenile Correctional Facility near Little Rock. The facility had long been plagued by a host of problems, most significantly, the failure to keep children safe from serious harm, including suicide. Other abuses include the inappropriate use of medication and physical restraints, and the failure to provide both the education necessary to earn a high school diploma and special education services mandated under federal law. It was also discovered that many of the youth confined to Alexander were there for minor, non-violent offenses.
NCYL and the Arkansas Disability Rights Center (DRC) began exploring strategies to end these abuses, and at the same time began discussions with the Division of Youth Services about ways to reform the state’s juvenile justice system.
NCYL and DRC met with Governor Mike Beebe, high-level DYS officials, legislators, and other state stakeholders. On March 30, 2007, the support generated through these conversations culminated in the adoption of Senate Resolution 31, which calls on state agencies to develop a broad juvenile justice reform plan. SR 31 requires the plan to be based on the needs and risks of the entire juvenile justice population, as well as any gaps in types and location of community based services.
The agreement between NCYL and DYS came soon after release in September 2007 of an expert report on conditions at the Alexander facility. The report, authored by Tim Roche[2] and Kelly Dedel[3], found that the unnecessary confinement of youth at Alexander, the state’s largest juvenile prison, places them at risk of serious harm. The report found that 90 percent of youth placed at Alexander are there for minor, non-violent offenses and concluded that roughly 100 of the 140 youth in the facility should be transitioned home or into other community based settings.
NCYL and DYS will be working over the next several months to develop recommendations to achieve reform. This work will include gathering information about the population at all of Arkansas’ secure juvenile facilities, as well as completing an assessment of community based services currently available. The initial report will be based on the reviews of several experts, who will focus on ways to return children to the community and maximize federal funding sources to serve Arkansas youth at risk of entering the juvenile justice system. The report will recommend taking money now spent on unnecessary incarceration and putting it into community-based programs. The planning process for this initial report will also include meeting with judges, community providers, public defenders, probation officers, legislators, advocates, parents and other stakeholders at every level of the juvenile justice system.
[1] The JEHT Foundation, established in 2000, works to ensure public safety and fairness to individuals in both the juvenile justice and adult criminal justice systems, among other issues (www.jehtfoundation.org).
[2] Tim Roche is former Executive Director of the Justice Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. and past President of the New York State Youth Advocates Program, and currently serves as a juvenile justice expert for the U.S. Department of Justice.
[3] Kelly Dedel is co-founder of the Institute on Crime, Justice and Corrections at George Washington University, and is regularly retained as a juvenile justice consultant by the U.S. Department of Justice.
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