Issues for Change

Aftercare

Following a period of residential placement in a juvenile facility, every youth needs aftercare—post-release supervision, services and supports—to make a safe and successful transition back to the community. Unfortunately, quality aftercare for juveniles is in short supply nationally. The estimated 100,000 young offenders coming out of juvenile institutions each year are a very high-need, high-risk group, suffering disproportionately from learning disabilities and deficits, mental illness, and alcohol and drug dependency, generally lacking in job skills or connections, and often returning to fragile families and communities. They need help to succeed. They’re not getting it. In too many places, incarcerated juveniles are released with minimal planning and coordination with their home communities, and receive little in the way of transitional support, specialized services, or even follow-up contact afterwards. Beyond parole monitoring frankly copied from the adult correctional system—and sometimes not much even of that—they are on their own. The results, too often, are failure, recidivism, and more incarceration.

The Models for Change initiative recognizes the vital need for better real-world models of aftercare. A juvenile justice system designed to help juvenile offenders realize their full potential would connect them with programs and services they need to adjust and succeed after leaving residential treatment. Treatment plans would be integrated with aftercare plans to assist offenders in overcoming problems, building on strengths, and acquiring essential living skills. Returning youth would have a smooth transition to the community. They would enroll immediately in school or have a job waiting. They would have quick access to services to continue the mental health or substance abuse treatment they received while in care. They would have strong adult support from family or other caring adults. Their life chances would be better then when they entered placement.

Models for Change is currently working to help realize this vision in Pennsylvania. With funding, support, and technical assistance from the initiative, state and local Models for Change partners are working on multiple fronts to improve aftercare in Pennsylvania:

• Interagency policy coordination. A multi-agency working group has hammered out a Joint Position Statement on Aftercare, signed by the Secretaries of the agencies represented, that both lays out the principles of a model aftercare system and specifies best practices—such as the integration of residential treatment and aftercare supervision plans—that will become standard aftercare procedure in the state by 2010.
• Statewide monitoring and assistance. Former county juvenile probation chiefs hired as statewide monitors have already visited each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties to gather information about variations in aftercare practice, offer expert assistance, and spread the word about aftercare reform. In order to inform state policymakers, the monitors produced a report summarizing the condition of aftercare in Pennsylvania. They are also surveying the state’s hundreds of public and private juvenile facilities to learn about aftercare practices from the institutional end.
• Demonstration projects. State-supported aftercare reform pilots in five counties have been launched, each taking a different approach to improving aftercare locally. Philadelphia’s Reintegration Reform Initiative is an ambitious effort to rethink and retool the whole system. In Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County, a team of education specialists has been added to monitor and coordinate educational services to youth in placement facilities. Cambria County is working with its local Goodwill affiliate on job training and employment for returning youth. York County is taking an intensive supervision approach, while Lycoming County focuses primarily on helping families of youth in placement prepare for their return.
• Cross-fertilization. In addition to technical assistance and some direct support for pilot efforts, Models for Change makes it possible for county demonstration project representatives to gather periodically, to learn from one another’s experiences, to communicate directly with state policymakers, and to get the benefit of training and presentations from national experts.
• Educational transition support. The Pennsylvania-based Educational Law Center was commissioned to produce and distribute an Educational Aftercare and Reintegration Toolkit for Juvenile Probation Officers, which provides probation with the legal tools and knowledge they need to help get released juvenile offenders reenrolled with local school districts and back on track educationally. ELC and has also been providing training on the Toolkit to juvenile probation officers in the pilot counties and elsewhere in the state.
• Support for post-dispositional advocacy. Models for Change support has also made it possible for county public defenders to receive professional training in effective client-centered advocacy for aftercare planning and services.
  

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