Teens Involved In Diversion Programs

I am doing my field placement at the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Court in the Juvenile Diversion Program (JDP). The JDP works with first time misdemeanor juvenile offenders between the ages of 8 and 17. In fact, the Florida Statute 985.12 gives law enforcement the authority to issue a Civil Citation instead of arresting the youth. The premise of the diversion program is to direct the juvenile’s path away from jail. When first entering the JDP the child will receive an assessment and may be referred to mental health counseling. In the first place, the case workers interviews the youth and their parent/guardian and form a contract. Next, the case worker will assign the defendant sanctions for the defendant to complete. The perpetrator will

North Carolina is the only state that prosecute 16 and 17 year olds that is charged with criminal offenses in the criminal justice system. These criminal records can have severe collateral consequences especially for minorities. While having a grave fiscal impact on individuals, families and communities. Due to this, Durham County introduced a Misdemeanor Diversion program (MDP) which is a 90 day program that tries to avoid a first arrest for low-risk youth in Durham- County. The purpose of this program is to keep the youth out of the adult criminal system.

Since the CARE youth/staff program is based on mentoring, you can look at success rates of mentoring program like Big Brother Big Sister to see if they were successful. Although Big Brother Big Sister is done in the community, one could assume the same type of relationship can be built inside the prison, especially if the trouble youths are dealing with the same sort of emotional, family, or social issues. Big Brother Big Sister mentoring program has shown a reduction in use of illegal substances including alcohol, being involved in physical fights, fewer days of skipping school and improvement in grades. Most juveniles in detention centers experience the same type of criminal situations as those on the outside. Hopefully being mentored while

True diversion programs allow an individual for intake in the best interest of that individual. For example someone demonstrating drug use for adolescents would be suggested a recovery or 12 step program and someone suffering from chronic insubordinate behavior, may be considered some counseling and therapy. Minimization of system penetration means to analyze all options before court ordering one to be on probation and strict supervision, possibly by suggesting community service as part of restorative justice or a mentoring program to keep the court absent as much as possible until absolutely necessary.

The LEAD Program originated in Seattle, Washington by the program developer Lisa Daugaard, and researchers Susan Collins and Seema Clifasefi. The test trial was undertaken at the Harm Reduction Research and Treatment Lab at the University of Washington–Harborview Medical Center where there was a test group and a controlled group. After a year of testing, the program made a success by the Seattle Police Department, and the department decided to temporarily integrate the program into real life policing. A year later, in 2014, the program became adopted permanently into the Seattle Policing Department due to the overwhelming consensus of police- citizen conflicts (Daugaard, Collins, & Clifasefi, 2016).

Upon reviewing the literature that some scholars have already research, I have found Fader, Lockwood, Schall, and Stokes and some other authors that have researched something similar to my question, “How is School to Prison Pipeline affecting juveniles around the United States?”. In 2014, Fader wrote an article called A Promising Approach to Narrowing the School-to-Prison Pipeline: The WISE Arrest Diversion Program. In the article, it mentions how the school to prison pipeline came about and how hard it is for a student who enters the school to prison pipeline to get out of it, there’s a stigma to the kids once they have entered the pipeline. By having an afterschool program called WISE might help students enter the

The California Youth Authority which is now known as the California Division of Juvenile Justice has gone through years of criticism. This institution is part of the division of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that offers several programs such as education, training, and treatment for California’s most serious youth offenders. The California Youth Authority became the go to alternative for the increasing rate of juvenile offenders that committed the most heinous crimes. This institution first opened in 1943 as a reform school, and today it functions similar to adult state prisons. Since that time over thousands of inmates were incarcerated inside of the California Youth Authority. In March of 2000, proposition

Jail diversion is a mental health platform explicitly premeditated to isolate and divert individuals with mental health, substance abuse disorders or both from the criminal justice system into a need-specific treatment in the mental health system. Specifically, the program provides linkages to community-based treatment and support services to assist the individual in reducing deviant behavior. For this reason, the individuals avoid arrests and spend a lesser period in jail. The effectiveness of the diversion program relies on various activities that involve the identification of the target group and a proper integration of the victim into the program. While there are many different types of jail diversion programs the accessibility to jail diversion programs are limited, due to the strict qualification guidelines set. In addition, the availability of appropriate mental health professionals is paramount to the efficiency of the program. It is a common belief that linking mentally ill offenders to Community-Based Services decrease their chances of recidivism and contact with security officers (Sirotich, 2009).

In the United States, over 90,000 juveniles are incarcerated in juvenile justice facilities. To house 90,000 juveniles, majority non-violent offenders, it costs the states roughly 5.7 billion dollars annually. “With states facing serious budgetary constraints, it is an opportune time or policymakers to consider ways to reduce juvenile justice spending that won’t compromise public safety.” In the effort to reduce juvenile justice costs, community-based programs known as pretrial diversion programs were implemented. Pretrial diversion programs did not only reduce funding costs, but benefited the juvenile as well. Pretrial diversion programs main objective is to rehabilitate juvenile offenders, which ultimately led to lower recidivism rates and safer communities. As a result of the benefits to all parties involved, today’s juvenile judicial system offers more juveniles the opportunity to attend these diversion programs; rather than proceed through traditional criminal justice processes. (Justice Policy Institution)

I do not think there is anything to help equip juveniles deal with the issues getting transferred to an adult prison. While in juvenile detention the youths are house with 53 other young kids sentenced as adults. Once the prisoner turns 18 they get transferred to the adult block where now there are 200 hundred other inmates and also bucking with another cell mate. Also it seems like In the documentary the kids were pushed to get and finish getting their G.E.D. while in jail. I don’t think there would be the same type of encouragement in adult prison. Last is while serving time in juvenile detention you was house with similar aged people and for the most part was there to do their time without trouble. Didn’t have any hardened criminals

A dearth of inpatient and outpatient services available for the mentally ill leads to the unfortunate fact that many people with mental health problems end up in jail for minor offenses, such as shoplifting. These behaviors stem from mental illnesses and can be dealt with as such with treatment. Since many prisons are not prepared to provide treatment or design release plans for people with mental health and substance abuse problems, the offenders are often unrestricted after being let out of prison only to be arrested again for another violation. The reality is that 75 percent of mentally ill inmates had been sentenced to time in prison or jail or to probation before their current sentences, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Facts

Alternative programs for youth were developed for mild and less serious delinquents. Over the years, the program has seen a surge in electronic home monitoring, community intensive supervision programs which service serious offenders in addition to minor cases. At times, group homes may house repeated youth offenders. Regardless of the placement, 24-hour supervision is provided in a unique way.

What is the process of diversion? “When pretrial diversion is used, a written agreement between the U.S. attorney and the chief pretrial services or probation officer defines aspects of its implementation” (Ulrich, 2002). Once implemented, the offender’s compliance is needed to move forward and there are rules, guidelines and expectations to be met on the offender’s behalf. Once critical issue noted is that of critics. We have learned that it helps with keeping jails less crowded but Is diversion helping or hurting recidivism? According to (Rivera, 2013), “McMurran and Theodosi (2007) found through a metaanalysis of 16 different

Finally, literature on the juvenile justice system often focuses on program implementation and effectiveness at addressing rehabilitation, as well as diversion techniques within the system (Greenwood, 2008). This review audits these problems in detail and establishes them within the bigger struggle in the juvenile justice system to rehabilitate youth offenders.

subjected to the juvenile justice system, but an alarming number of youths are transferred to