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Priority Issues: Juvenile Justice

I. The Issue

Cost-effective interventions that leverage the strengths of families and communities to reform troubled youths are critical to a successful juvenile justice system. Youths who “slip through the cracks” may remain in the criminal justice system throughout their lives even though some could have been saved by effective policies during pivotal developmental stages.  However, funds should only be spent on programs that are supported by evidence, and risk and needs assessment should be used to ensure that youths who would be most successful in non-residential programs are not placed in costly residential settings.

II. The Impact

If a juvenile program can prevent a delinquent youth from becoming a career criminal, it is obviously a positive moral outcome for society, as it avoids future victims.  It is also, however, a significant financial boon to the state. In Texas, for example, incarceration in a state juvenile facility costs approximately $270 per day, while diversion or supervision programs range from $7 to $73 per day. While some youths need to be in a residential setting, research has found unnecessary incarceration may actually make lower-risk youths more likely to re-offend, as it co-mingles them with more serious offenders and frays ties to their family and community. Funds saved from reducing unnecessary incarceration can be reallocated to less costly approaches for reforming other youths and preventing delinquency, or returned to taxpayers.

III. The Conservative Solution

• Expand flexibility in funding, so that local jurisdictions may spend funds now used for housing some of their youths in large state youth lockups on less costly community-based programs supported by research.  Effective community-based models include multisystemic therapy, victim-offender mediation, mentoring, vocational programs, and group homes modeled after those in Missouri for youths that require a residential setting.

• Implement evidence-based practices to increase the effectiveness of juvenile probation and parole, such as graduated sanctions that respond to each violation of the rules of supervision with a swift, sure, and commensurate sanction. Graduated incentives should also be employed to reward exemplary conduct. Research has demonstrated graduated responses are far more effective because they send a clear message at the time of the behavior rather than waiting for relatively minor violations to pile up and then applying the ultimate sanction -- revocation to a youth lockup.

• Create policies so that youths are more likely to find employment as adults, reducing the likelihood of recidivating. This may entail, among others, providing additional opportunities for non-violent youth offenders to expunge or decline to disclose records, removing barriers for otherwise qualified applicants with a juvenile record from obtaining occupational licenses, and emphasizing vocational training opportunities for youth offenders.

• Streamline juvenile facilities so that cost savings may be reallocated to other areas of juvenile justice that provide a greater public safety return on the investment. Underutilized facilities, particularly those which are remotely located away from families and qualified treatment personnel, should be closed or consolidated.

• Improve school disciplinary policies so that more misbehavior is corrected at an early stage in school and fewer students drop out or are removed from school and enter the juvenile justice system. Proven approaches include teen courts, community service learning, student behavior contracts, student behavior accounts, and peer mediation.

• Implement policies that require reviews of sentences given to people convicted of crimes committed under age 18 to determine whether, years later, they are fit to return to society.  Victims should be notified about sentencing reviews, which will not guarantee release, but will ensure tax dollars are not wasted on people who have served time in prison for crimes committed as juveniles and no longer pose a threat to society.  This is a fair, cost-effective, age- appropriate way to ensure that juveniles are held accountable for harm they have caused, which offers them an opportunity to redeem themselves.

  • Georgia to lock up fewer young offenders

    Posted in Georgia, Juvenile Justice, Priority Issues, State Initiatives: May 3, 2013 by Brendan Steinhauser

    From Rhonda Cook at the Atlanta Journal Constitution Originally published May 2, 2013 DALTON —With a swipe of his pen, Gov. Nathan Deal set in motion another phase of the effort to make criminal justice in Georgia less costly and more effective – this one focused on youthful offenders. Deal signed House Bill 242, adding [...]

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  • All Kids Make Mistakes

    Posted in Audio and Video, Juvenile Justice, Overcriminalization, ROC Blog: April 15, 2013 by Brendan Steinhauser

    Did you know only 5% of the kids in prison have committed violent crimes?  Learn more from this video by Mistakes Kids Make:

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  • Senator Rand Paul talks criminal justice at Howard University

    Posted in Adult Probation, Juvenile Justice, Kentucky, Law Enforcement, Overcriminalization, Parole and Re-Entry, Prisons, ROC Blog, Substance Abuse: April 10, 2013 by Brendan Steinhauser

    Read the full text of Senator Rand Paul’s speech at Howard University today. He focused on how conservative values, including those that deal with criminal justice reform, can better people’s lives and limit government power. Here is an excerpt from the speech today. Our federal mandatory minimum sentences are simply heavy handed and arbitrary. They [...]

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  • Georgia House passes juvenile justice reform bill

    Posted in Georgia, Juvenile Justice, ROC Blog: March 27, 2013 by Brendan Steinhauser

    Good news out of Georgia. The Georgia House of Representatives just passed HB 242, the juvenile justice reform bill. It now goes to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature. Here is an excerpt from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Major changes are coming to how the state treats juveniles who get in trouble with the law under [...]

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  • Kelly McCutchen on WGAU 1340AM – Talking Juvenile Justice Reform in Georgia

    Posted in Audio, Georgia, Juvenile Justice, ROC Blog: March 25, 2013 by Brendan Steinhauser

    Listen to this radio interview of Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s Kelly McCutchen talk about juvenile justice reform in Georgia on talk radio station WGAU 1340AM in Georgia. The interview starts a couple of minutes into the show. As Right on Crime signatory McCutchen points out, Georgia is spending more than $91,000 a year, per juvenile [...]

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  • Right on Crime Campaign Applauds Unanimous Passage of Juvenile Justice Reforms in the Georgia Senate

    Posted in Georgia, Juvenile Justice, ROC Blog: March 22, 2013 by Brendan Steinhauser

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 22, 2013 AUSTIN – Today, the Right on Crime campaign congratulated the Georgia Senate for unanimously passing a major juvenile justice reform bill. This legislation would enact comprehensive juvenile justice reforms recommended by the Governor’s Special Council on Justice Reform. The reforms would refocus Georgia’s juvenile justice system on programs that [...]

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  • Newt Gingrich and Kelly McCutchen Op-Ed on Juvenile Justice

    Posted in Georgia, Juvenile Justice, ROC Blog, Uncategorized: March 20, 2013 by Brendan Steinhauser

    Check out this great op-ed by Newt Gingrich and Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s Kelly McCutchen in today’s Marietta, GA newspaper. It’s about how Georgia can make some major reforms in their juvenile justice system. We expect a vote on proposed legislation this week. Here is an excerpt from the piece in the Marietta Daily Journal. [...]

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  • Right on Crime Applauds Passage of Juvenile Reforms in Georgia House

    Posted in Georgia, Juvenile Justice, ROC Blog: February 28, 2013 by Brendan Steinhauser

    AUSTIN – Today, the Right on Crime campaign congratulated the Georgia House of Representatives for unanimously passing HB 242. This bill would enact comprehensive juvenile justice reforms recommended by the Governor’s Special Council on Justice Reform. HB 242 would refocus Georgia’s juvenile justice system on programs that actually work to keep streets safer. The bill [...]

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  • Hunstein: Georgia at “Crossroads in Juvenile Justice History”

    Posted in Georgia, Juvenile Justice, Priority Issues, ROC Blog, State Initiatives: February 8, 2013 by Mike Klein

    Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Hunstein declared the state is at a “crossroads in juvenile justice history” and challenged the General Assembly to expand mental health services for “clearly disturbed youngsters” during her final State of the Judiciary address, telling lawmakers…

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  • Universities of Crime: Post-Incarceration Illegal Earnings

    Posted in Juvenile Justice, Priority Issues, ROC Blog: February 5, 2013 by Jeanette Moll

    Right on Crime has often discussed how, in particular situations, public safety is actually harmed by the incarceration of low-risk and medium-risk youth. This theory colloquially deems youth lock-ups “universities of crime,” and focuses on how certain youth may learn all the wrong lessons from older and more…

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