Juvenile Justice Reform Initiatives Taking Place Across Louisiana
Jan 15, 2010, Louisiana Models for Change (courtesy of Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Catherine D. Kimball)
I applaud the member judges of the Louisiana Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges for their active support and ongoing efforts to improve and reform Louisiana’s juvenile justice system.
With generous grants provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Council judges in the 4th JDC, 9th JDC, 14th JDC, 16th JDC, Caddo Juvenile and Jefferson Juvenile Courts have had great outcomes in a variety of court improvement initiatives.
With additional grant funding for judicial involvement and leadership, the Council is now working to share what has been learned from these projects with judges across the state.
Earlier this year, the Council’s Judicial Task Force surveyed more than 200 judges with juvenile and family jurisdiction. The responses to the survey – this direct input from many of you – will determine future communications structures, information preferences and training opportunities.
The Judicial Outreach Survey reflected your top five choices for training:
• Alternatives to formal processing of youth;
• Information on Community Based Programs and
Services
• Use and Interpretation of Psychological Testing;
• Issues of Mental Health and Mental Illness; and
• Evidence Based Programming
With these training choices as a guide, the Council is working with the Judicial College and other organizations, including the Louisiana District Attorneys Association and the Louisiana Public Defenders, to shape training curricula.
The survey results also show broad judicial support for enhanced judge-to-judge experience and information sharing on juvenile issues. The regional summits planned throughout the state in November and early 2010 will give every judge the opportunity to share experiences and receive training on best practices and services available in your local communities.
The judges coordinating these summits – who also provide leadership on the Judicial Task Force – are Judges John Conery, Grace Gasaway, Ernestine Gray, Andrea Janzen, David Matlock, Sharon Marchman, Patricia Koch and Paul Young.
On behalf of the Louisiana Supreme Court, I encourage all the judges with juvenile and family jurisdiction to attend the summits and become involved in local and state initiatives.
Louisiana is number one in adult incarceration and has 20 percent more incarcerated youth than the national average.
For the majority of Louisiana residents, these statistics are a hard pill to swallow, and rightfully so when comparing the cost of incarceration to an equal investment in education.
There is great cause for concern for the future needs and safety of our state’s youth and those of the all the state’s citizens.
Beyond that, nearly two-thirds of incarcerated youth have committed nonviolent offenses, and many of them have special mental health needs that require individualized treatment – needs that are often unmet.
To continue the current of change to reform juvenile justice, and ensure opportunities for the future, an active voice is needed.
Louisiana judges are providing this voice, in partnership the nationally known MacArthur and Annie E. Casey Foundations, the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana and many other state and local partners.
These reform partnerships challenge the way the state handles status offenders and delinquent youth, particularly those at risk for out-of-home placements.
This unified effort also monitors conditions at our state’s secure care youth centers, including Jetson (Baton Rouge), Swanson (Monroe) and Bridge City (New Orleans), and seeks to ensure youth receive the most effective and appropriate care in a therapeutic, abuse-free setting. Louisiana judges are also heavily involved with strategic planning and policy change with the state’s entire child serving departments and the state legislators.
Highlighted below are the court-based initiatives supporting juvenile justice reform.
Many of these are funded by the MacArthur Foundation’s Models for Change- Systems Reform in Juvenile Justice, a national initiative that started with four states (of which Louisiana was one) and is now in 16 states across the country.
Additional information provided by Judge Patricia Koch, 9th Judicial District Court and Elliot A. Hutchinson on behalf of Louisiana Models for Change.
- Issues
-
Aftercare
, Community-based alternatives
, Evidence-based practices
, Juvenile indigent defense
, Mental health
, Racial-ethnic fairness/DMC
, Right-sizing jurisdiction
- States
-
Louisiana
- Action networks
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Indigent Defense Action Network
, Mental Health / Juvenile Justice Action Network