Thanks to funding from the Public Welfare Foundation and the Atlantic Philanthropies, NCYL is expanding its Juvenile Justice Reform Project.  This expansion includes increased involvement in Wyoming and Arkansas, where NCYL is currently working, and the launching of new juvenile justice reform work in other states, including California.

NCYL is in the process of hiring an attorney and a policy advocate to join the Center’s juvenile justice team.

NCYL assists carefully selected juvenile justice reform efforts that it believes have genuine potential for success.  The Center’s priority is to reduce the number of youth subjected to harmful and unnecessary incarceration and expand effective community based supports.  NCYL is a currently a key participant in efforts to reform the juvenile justice systems in Arkansas and Wyoming.

NCYL uses a variety of approaches in its juvenile justice reform work, including developing relationships with government officials and key stakeholders to ensure NCYL’s place at the table -- or behind the scenes, if more effective -- to help shape sustainable reform.  NCYL retains experts to assist with various aspects of reform efforts and to provide technical assistance as needed.

Arkansas and Wyoming

In Arkansas, NCYL forged a partnership with government and other key stakeholders to reduce the use of secure confinement statewide and to increase the number of community based alternatives. In just one year, NCYL obtained a Senate resolution endorsing the need to reduce reliance on incarceration and to develop a better array of community alternatives.  The Governor has also made a public commitment to reform the system. In the past year, the rate of commitments for misdemeanors has dropped, and the Division of Youth Services (DYS). DYS has closed a unit at its largest facility, reducing capacity for secure confinement by 20 beds.

In collaboration with the Director of the Division of Youth Services, NCYL prepared a Report, Juvenile Justice Reform in Arkansas: Building a Better Future for Youth, their Families, and the Community. This report provided the foundation upon which the state’s five-year comprehensive reform plan (PDF) was developed. NCYL is now working with the state and stakeholders to implement the plan and increase resources for implementation.

NCYL has also been working in Wyoming for about a year. In that time, it has forged working relationships with the Governor’s Wyoming Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice, the ACLU, the Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance, and other stakeholders intended to reduce incarceration rates and the use of adult jails to punish youth for minor, non-violent offenses. Shockingly, about 85 percent of all youth offenders are prosecuted in adult courts, many for conduct that would not even be deemed criminal if committed by an adult. These youth are deprived of rehabilitative services available through the juvenile court, and suffer all the negative effects of an adult conviction. NCYL’s work in Wyoming focuses on developing strategies to change this practice. The Center also provides technical assistance and support for other reform initiatives in Wyoming, including improving data collection, developing statewide detention intake standards, and improving conditions of confinement. Legislation intended to make access to juvenile court services more equitable was passed last session. This year, bills to reform detention practices and improve data collection have been introduced. 

California

With a generous influx of new funding, including from van Löben Sels/RembeRock Foundation, NCYL plans to increase its juvenile justice reform work in other states, including California. As California shrinks its state juvenile system by shifting resources and responsibilities to the county level, advocacy is essential to ensure that true reform takes hold, and that California’s juvenile incarceration problem is not simply shifted to county lock-ups.  Working in consultation with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, the Prison Law Office, the Ella Baker Center, the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, the Youth Law Center, and other organizations, NCYL hopes to invest project resources in at least one California county to develop a model pilot county system that favors non-custodial interventions.