Arkansas

NCYL continues its work to reform the juvenile justice system in Arkansas, partnering with the Division of Youth Services (DYS) and other stakeholders. The goal of the reform effort is to reduce the use of secure detention to address the problems of youth in trouble, and to expand community-based alternatives. 

NCYL first became involved in Arkansas in 2007 to redress dangerous conditions at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center (Alexander), a 143-bed secure facility that was filled to capacity. Since that time, state officials have successfully worked with the juvenile court and community-based service providers to reduce the population at Alexander, as well as the number of youth committed to DYS generally. Alexander is safer, there is a greater emphasis on assessment and treatment, and staff is far less reliant on punitive measures against the youth there.

The reform effort has resulted in a drop in the number of youth committed to DYS for misdemeanor offenses. As in many states, youth from communities across Arkansas are being committed to state custody for low-level offenses. In Arkansas, 42 percent of youth committed to DYS in 2007 were serving time for a misdemeanor. This number has been reduced to 37 percent during 2008, and 32 percent in the first quarter of 2009. 

Also during the past year, Arkansas DYS has significantly reduced the backlog of youth adjudicated delinquent and held for lengthy periods in county detention awaiting placement. On any given day in 2007, about 50 youth were inappropriately detained, with the length of incarceration for girls being twice as long as for boys. Under strong agency leadership, DYS now sends assessment teams to detention facilities to assess youths' needs, so they may be placed or returned to the community with appropriate supports and services. These mobile assessment teams have successfully reduced the use of detention for youth waiting for more appropriate placements or to return home with the necessary services.

Working to bring more effective community-based program models to Arkansas, NCYL recently coordinated a visit to the Youth Advocacy Program (YAP) in Tarrant County, Texas with a contingent of Arkansas judges, service providers, and agency officials. The YAP program keeps youth out of detention by providing employment opportunities close to home, assistance getting back in school, and youth and family support services.  Arkansas officials are working to bring components of the YAP model to their state. 

Finally, NCYL has been engaged over the past several months in an extensive strategic planning process in Arkansas, with the input of DYS officials, judges, service providers, school officials, mental health professionals, youth, and others. With funding provided by the now-defunct JEHT Foundation, NCYL retained Dr. Angela Brenton, Dean of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, to facilitate a five-year strategic planning process that will guide reform efforts and support DYS budget requests for this year and next to increase community-based alternatives to incarceration. An interim strategic plan was completed in January to support the Department's request for a modest amount of additional funds this year. The strategic planning process has involved approximately 50 stakeholders from across Arkansas.

Since NCYL's loss of support from the JEHT Foundation, NCYL has received a generous grant from the Public Welfare Foundation to continue its juvenile justice reform work in Arkansas.  

Wyoming 

NCYL is also working with advocates, the government, and stakeholders in Wyoming to reform that state's juvenile justice system. Due to a confusing Juvenile Code, and the "system" that has evolved as a result, there is no unified juvenile court system in Wyoming, or any rational way to determine juvenile court jurisdiction over youth who are arrested.  Most youth in trouble with the law are subjected to adult court and criminal penalties, even for misdemeanors or status offenses. The gateway to juvenile court, and the services available through adjudication, are arbitrarily determined by where the youth is arrested and the jurisdiction of the arresting authority (county, municipal, or highway patrol officer). This has resulted in gross inequities in how these juveniles are treated. 

The overwhelming majority (about 80 percent) of all court activity involving juvenile offenders occurs in adult courts. Most of these youth are being tried and convicted in the adult system for such status offenses as possessing alcohol. As a result, they suffer all the consequences of an adult conviction. They are incarcerated in adult jails and end up with an adult criminal record that can later affect their ability to secure employment, housing, and school loans. 

Of the small percentage of youth whose cases are handled by the juvenile court, many are unnecessarily confined in unsafe and harmful detention facilities. These youth could be more effectively treated with supports and services in the community, at less cost to the public.

The "system" is so irrational in Wyoming that even those most resistant to or skeptical about the possibility of change have redoubled their efforts to determine a better way of dealing with youth in trouble. Several well-publicized sexual assaults at the Casper juvenile detention center in 2008 provided further impetus to reform the system. 

In May of 2008, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal appointed retired juvenile court Judge Gary P. Hartman as his special advisor, charged with spearheading statewide juvenile justice reform.  Judge Hartman began his appointment this fall. His goal is to work with communities to keep juveniles out of institutions and to reduce the use of adult criminal courts. 

In addition, the Wyoming Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice, under the leadership of newly appointed Chairwoman Donna Sheen, is well positioned to play a key leadership role in reform.

NCYL has joined the ongoing juvenile justice reform work in Wyoming at the invitation of individuals involved in the reform effort, and with generous financial assistance from the Public Welfare Foundation. NCYL is helping to organize advocates and other stakeholders around a common vision for broad systems reform, while at the same time supporting the government's attempts to improve parts of the system.  

As part of this work, NCYL challenged the unconscionable use of the juvenile detention facility in Casper to incarcerate youth. (The Casper facility is an old adult jail that was closed as a result of litigation, and then resurrected to imprison juveniles.) NCYL hopes to stop the use of this facility, for the sake and safety of the youth incarcerated there, and to provoke a broader dialog about the urgent need for comprehensive system reform. 

NCYL is also exploring ways to address the inequitable use of adult court jurisdiction throughout Wyoming.  

The long-term goals in Wyoming are to revamp the system's structure, developing a system that relies far less on incarceration and the criminalization of youth and more on community based alternatives.