Models for Change Publications (Illinois)

Measurable Progress: A Summary of Illinois Juvenile Justice Reforms

04/25/2013 10:07 AM

Oct 1, 2012 | Various | PUBLICATIONS

This report summarizes some of the key changes in juvenile justice law, policy and practice that have taken place in Illinois during the period 2005 – 2012. These changes have accelerated over the life of the project and include a reduction in secure confinement and greater reliance on community-based alternatives, improved strategies and tools for juvenile justice planning and decision-making at both the state and local levels, expanded juvenile court jurisdiction, and extensive legislative and practice changes around issues as diverse as data collection and analysis, transfer, screening and assessment, indigent defense, restorative justice, diversion, and sentencing.

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Illinois Leaders Perspective

04/25/2013 10:00 AM

Apr 1, 2012 | Various | PUBLICATIONS

The goal of the Illinois Models for Change1 Fast Forward project was to hear and learn from a range of influential state leaders on how they view the current state of juvenile justice in Illinois, their ideas on where additional progress is needed, and their thoughts on how best to accomplish the work that remains to be done.2 This report summarizes the results of a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with dozens of individuals representing a diverse range of institutions and organizations, including members of the judicial, executive and legislative branches of government as well as private agencies, associations and organizations.

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Illinois Juvenile Defender Practice Notebook

04/01/2013 08:29 AM

Nov 10, 2011 | Rey Cheatham Banks | PUBLICATIONS

The Illinois Juvenile Defender Practice Notebook assists defenders who practice in one of the most rewarding and yet most challenging areas of law – juvenile defense.

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Your Guide to the Juvenile Justice System in Illinois

03/29/2013 09:04 AM

Nov 9, 2011 | Marjorie Moss | PUBLICATIONS

An illustrated guide for youth in contact with the juvenile justice system in Illinois.

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The Second Century: Juvenile Justice Reform in Illinois

03/21/2013 02:41 PM

Dec 1, 2008 | Mark Soler | PUBLICATIONS

This report illustrates significant achievements with policies and practices in Illinois' juvenile justice system. The report includes information on efforts to utilize data and public education to combat DMC, challenge automatic transfer laws, and implement detention reform.

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Guidelines for Collecting and Recording the Race and Ethnicity of Youth in Illinois' Juvenile Justice System

03/21/2013 01:03 PM

May 2, 2012 | Tiana Davis | PUBLICATIONS

This booklet provides instruction and guidance to juvenile justice practitioners, including members of state and local law enforcement, juvenile courts, probation departments, and correctional agencies, on accurate collection of race and ethnicity data for juveniles involved in Illinois’ juvenile justice system.

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Illinois Side by Side Assessment Recommendations

03/20/2013 02:04 PM

Oct 2, 2008 | National Juvenile Detention Center | PUBLICATIONS

This document summarizes issues, solutions and recommendation identified in the Illinois assessment.

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Peoria County Juvenile Domestic Violence Work Area Transition Report

03/20/2013 11:10 AM

Jan 4, 2011 | Jeff Gress | PUBLICATIONS

Each of the Illinois Demonstration Sites for Community Based Alternatives have developed transition reports for each of their written work-plan supported areas. The Peoria County Juvenile Domestic Violence Work Area Transition report chronicles their experience attempting to improve the local infrastructure for safely divert youth charged with domestic battery offenses from secure detention and formal handling. The document includes an opening overview by the National Center for Juvenile Justice, a detailed program narrative written by the principle MFC coordinators for this work area in Peoria County and a compilation of the tools and products developed in the work. The document is 41 pages in length.

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Peoria County BARJ Work Area Transition Report

03/20/2013 10:58 AM

Sep 30, 2010 | Jeff Gress | PUBLICATIONS

Each of the Illinois Demonstration Sites for Community Based Alternatives have developed transition reports for each of their written work-plan supported areas. The Peoria County Balanced and Restorative Justice Work Area Transition report chronicles their experience attempting to improve the local infrastructure for safely diverting school discipline issues from a law enforcement response and changing school climate. The document includes an opening overview by the National Center for Juvenile Justice, a detailed program narrative written by the principle MFC coordinators for this work area in Peoria County and a compilation of the tools and products developed in the work. The document is 68 pages in length.

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JIDAN Journal

01/02/2013 09:22 AM

Dec 19, 2012 | NJDC | PUBLICATIONS

The JIDAN Journal reports on efforts by the Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network (JIDAN) to improve juvenile indigent defense practice. JIDAN is a project of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Models for Change. The National Juvenile Defender Center manages the JIDAN and publishes this newsletter. Please contact us at rbanks@njdc.info or 202-452-0010, ext. 107.

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Innovation Brief: Mental Health Needs and Due Process Rights: Finding the Balance

11/29/2012 07:23 PM

Nov 30, 2012 | Autumn Dickman, Juvenile Law Center | PUBLICATIONS

Models for Change sites have launched a variety of initiatives to identify and treat justice involved youths with mental health and substance abuse problems. They include screening and assessment protocols in detention and at court intake, innovative diversion programs, and evidence-based treatment programs. But to reap the benefits of these initiatives, youths often have to answer questions about offending behavior. That puts many of them at risk of incriminating themselves and facing prosecution for new offenses. The challenge facing Models for Change sites was how to implement creative initiatives to identify and treat these youths while upholding their due process rights.

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Innovation Brief: Partnering with Schools to Reduce Juvenile Justice Referrals

11/29/2012 06:30 PM

Nov 30, 2012 | Jason Szanyi, Center for Children’s Law and Policy | PUBLICATIONS

In Peoria, Illinois, a large number of African-American youth were entering detention for aggravated battery in one public high school. After learning more about the problem, local juvenile justice and school officials, with support from the Models for Change initiative, launched a pilot project to address fights and other incidents on campus using principles of Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ). Once implemented, the low-cost interventions resulted in a 35 percent reduction in school-based referrals to detention for all youth, and a 43 percent reduction for African-American youth. This pilot project served as a springboard for broader implementation of BARJ programming as an alternative to formal processing in schools and in the community.

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Innovation Brief: Reforming Automatic Transfer Laws: A Success Story

11/29/2012 06:19 PM

Nov 30, 2012 | Jason Szanyi, Center for Children’s Law and Policy | PUBLICATIONS

In the mid-1980s, the Illinois Legislature took a tough stance on drug use among youth. As part of a national trend toward harsher punishments for juveniles, lawmakers decided to prosecute in adult court all 15- and 16-year-olds charged with drug offenses within 1,000 feet of a school or public housing development. Although the law applied to youth throughout the state, its effects were felt most harshly by children of color from Chicago. Armed with data gathered with support from the Models for Change initiative, advocates overcame criticism that proposed reforms were “soft on crime” and mounted a successful campaign to change the law. Within two years, automatic transfers in Cook County, which includes Chicago, fell by two-thirds—without compromising public safety.

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Juvenile Justice Guide Book for Legislators

04/11/2012 02:20 PM

Dec 5, 2011 | National Conference of State Legislators | PUBLICATIONS

Under a partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, NCSL has published a juvenile justice guidebook addressing the most important juvenile justice policy issues of the day. This juvenile justice primer highlights significant research, program approaches and gives examples of state legislation.

Preventing and addressing juvenile crime and delinquency remain perennial issues in state legislatures today. Juvenile justice policies require balancing the interests of rehabilitation, accountability and public safety, while also preserving the rights of juveniles. State lawmakers now more than ever are challenged with making informed choices on ways to cut costs and reduce crime and still meet the needs of youth who commit delinquent acts.

The introduction to the guidebook can be downloaded via the link above. Below are PDFs containing different sections from the guidebook. Check back soon to download the full guidebook.

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Addressing the Needs of Multi-System Youth: Strengthening the Connection between Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice

04/11/2012 02:17 PM

Mar 1, 2012 | Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University and Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps | PUBLICATIONS

It has been known for quite some time that children involved in the child welfare system are at risk of “crossing over” to the juvenile justice system and, inversely, that many juvenile justice–involved youth later become involved in the child welfare system. These youth are commonly referred to as crossover youth. The accumulation of research on this population has given us greater understanding of their characteristics, of the pathway they took to become crossover youth, and of the practices professionals can employ to improve their outcomes. Despite these advances in our knowledge, jurisdictions around the United States, and arguably around the world, continue to face challenges in adequately meeting the needs of this difficult-to-serve population. As a result, several reform efforts have been developed to guide jurisdictions in their efforts to improve the way they serve crossover youth.

The purpose of this paper is to provide communities with a consolidated framework for serving crossover youth that incorporates the most up-to-date research, lessons from ongoing reform efforts, and an innovative collaborative management structure. To accomplish this task, the paper begins with a summary of the research on crossover youth, including their characteristics and system experiences. The paper then explores the systemic factors that contribute to ineffective service delivery for this population, followed by a review of two major crossover youth reform initiatives in the United States—the Systems Integration Initiative (SII) and the Crossover Youth Practice Model (CYPM). The final section presents the next frontier of this work by providing a comprehensive array of the best practices needed to improve outcomes for this population and describing Results-Based Accountability™ (RBA), an innovative management structure that can be used to align the work of a variety of stakeholders around a common, community-wide effort for crossover youth.

This introduction serves to briefly orient the reader to what we know about crossover youth, the challenges in serving this population, the current reform efforts underway, and the Results-Based Accountability™ framework. These topics are elaborated upon further in subsequent sections. The stage is then set for the presentation of a new frontier of this work—a more cohesive and robust framework regarding how systems can undertake reforms to improve the lives of crossover youth.

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Probation Review Guidebook

02/21/2012 04:02 PM

Dec 9, 2011 | Janet K. Wiig and John A. Tuell, Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps | PUBLICATIONS

The genesis for this guidebook was the probation review work undertaken in Jefferson Parish, LA as part of the work in the four core states associated with Models for Change: System Reform in Juvenile Justice and in Los Angeles County, CA under a Child Welfare League of America contract with the Los Angeles County Auditor-Controller’s Office. In both of those jurisdictions, over a period of several months, there was a review of programs and operations to support the goals of the probation departments, culminating in reports of findings and recommendations for improvements to the respective departments. A carefully tailored work plan was used to direct the reviews in each instance but the core elements of the plan were essentially the same and included:

A. Program Planning and Implementation
B. Best Practices and Benchmarking
C. Performance Measurement and Client Outcomes
D. Intra- and Inter-agency Work Processes

As the review work progressed in Jefferson Parish, the Model For Change lead entity for Louisiana, the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Public Health,and the MacArthur Foundation endorsed the development of a guidebook to assist other jurisdictions that were considering whether to undertake a probation review. They asked the principals who conducted the reviews in Jefferson Parish and Los Angeles County, Janet Wiig and John Tuell, to prepare this guidebook for that purpose.

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Adding Up Models for Change: Initial Findings from the Models for Change Database

02/21/2012 03:53 PM

Dec 9, 2011 | Patrick Griffin, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation | PUBLICATIONS

Models for Change was deliberately designed to be wide-ranging—to support state and local reformers in a variety of settings, working in variety of issue areas, and taking a variety of approaches. By funding reform efforts that acknowledged and reflected the complex variations in the nation’s juvenile justice systems, Models for Change sought to generate a broad and flexible range of system reform models. But this strategy makes it challenging even to document the activities of the initiative’s network of partners, let alone to track and quantify all that they have accomplished.

In 2009, the Foundation engaged a management consulting firm, Bennett Midland LLC, to design a new kind of management tool for Models for Change: a database that could serve as a comprehensive inventory of the initiative’s investments and activities, a record of progress for grants initiative-wide, and a source for analytical data to inform ongoing management decisions as the initiative progresses.This management tool would combine and relate data on the characteristics of all Models for Change grants and grantees with detailed information on the varieties of reform work the grants supported and the concrete changes they helped produce. In effect, it would classify, sort, and aggregate Models for Change—the whole array of its investments, activities and accomplishments—so that the Foundation and its partners could better assess and understand the ways it has contributed to juvenile justice systems reform.

The Models for Change Database that resulted is an experimental prototype, with the usual bugs and inconsistencies. It is also a work in progress, with information from multiple sources continually being entered and edited, cleaned and analyzed. But it has now been in use long enough, and is sufficiently populated with data, to yield some useful preliminary insights into Models for Change.

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DMC e-News-By the Numbers: Signs of Progress from Rapides Parish, Louisiana

02/10/2012 01:36 PM

Feb 7, 2012 | DMC Action Network | PUBLICATIONS

In this issue, we highlight work in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, where officials have reduced probation revocations by over 50% for youth of color. This edition also describes CCLP's search for jurisdictions to engage in a new effort to create fairer and more effective juvenile justice systems, funded by the MacArthur Foundation and OJJDP.

Download the PDF to read this installment of the DMC Action Newtwork eNews.

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DMC e-News: Mark Masterson of Sedgwick County, KS Named Champion for Change

01/05/2012 10:32 AM

Jan 4, 2012 | DMC Action Network | PUBLICATIONS

The November/December issue features news from the Models for Change 6th Annual Working Conference and the presentation of the Champions for Change award to Mark Masterson of Sedgewick County, KS:

"Sedgwick County Department of Corrections Director Mark Masterson is no stranger to work to reduce racial and ethnic disparities. Before joining the DMC Action Network in 2007, officials in his jurisdiction were already hard at work on improving data capacity and developing community based-alternatives to detention.

However, Mark wanted Sedgwick County to do more. As a DMC Action Network site, Sedgwick County seized the opportunities available through the Network to reduce school-based arrests and arrests for low-level offenses, create alternatives to detention for youth of color, and leverage funding to explore the needs of youth involved in both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems."

Download the PDF to read more.

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Counting Latino Youth in the Illinois Juvenile Justice System

12/16/2011 11:00 AM

Dec 9, 2011 | National Council of La Raza | PUBLICATIONS

The report details the inadequacy of information on Hispanic youth, who constitute one of the fastest-growing segments of the population, and highlights this lack of data as a major barrier to developing strategies and policies that can effectively prevent young Latinos from becoming caught up in the justice system.

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Knowledge Brief: How Can We Know If Juvenile Justice Reforms Are Worth the Cost?

12/01/2011 01:45 PM

Dec 1, 2011 | Models for Change Research Initiative | PUBLICATIONS

With governments at every level facing grim budget forecasts, policymakers need to knowas much as possible about what juvenile justice activities yield the greatest social good fora given level of spending. This is the very question benefit-cost analysis seeks to answer.This policy brief summarizes the benefit-cost analysis of a set of reforms intended tomake juvenile detention more developmentally productive: residential centers that provideyouths with group-based cognitive behavior therapy. The researchers found preliminaryevidence that this program may decrease recidivism rates in the 15 months followingrelease, and that the minimal costs of the program (a few hundred dollars per youth perdetention spell) may be outweighed by the monetized benefits of reduced crime andpunishment. Their hunch is that progress is most likely to come from the cumulative effectof relatively inexpensive changes like this one, each generating benefits in excess of costsand reducing recidivism incrementally.

This brief is one in a series describing new knowledge and innovations emerging from Models for Change, a multi-state juvenile justice initiative. Models for Change is accelerating movement toward a more effective, fair, and developmentally sound juvenile justice system by creating replicable models that protect community safety, use resources wisely, and improve outcomes for youths. The briefs are intended to inform professionals in juvenile justice and related fields, and to contribute to a new national wave of juvenile justice reform.

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Knowledge Brief: Harnessing the Capacity for Change

12/01/2011 01:42 PM

Dec 1, 2011 | Models for Change Research Initiative | PUBLICATIONS

Organizational change requires more than good ideas. Organizations must also have thecapacity and resources necessary to reach the desired goals. In this project, the researchersinterviewed and surveyed organizations involved in Models for Change to assess theircapacity to implement and sustain change. They sought to understand what resourcescontribute to having capacity, how capacity is used, and the ways in which differentdimensions of capacity work together. From the study they identified five major dimensionsof capacity—finances, human resources, technology, stakeholder commitment, andcollaboration—and developed a model of how these dimensions interact, build on oneanother, and ultimately contribute to change. The more concrete capacities such as finances,human resources, and technology, the researchers found, can predict an organization’s abilityto collaborate with others to effect change.

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Knowledge Brief: Is There a Link between Child Welfare and Disproportionate Minority Contact in Juvenile Justice?

12/01/2011 01:33 PM

Dec 1, 2011 | Models for Change Research Initiative | PUBLICATIONS

African-American children are represented in foster care and other child welfare placements at a rate more than twice their representation in the U.S. child population. Like others in the child welfare system they tend to be victims of physical abuse and neglect—the very children who are at increased risk of juvenile delinquency. What implications does this have for disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in juvenile justice? This study looked at whether the population of youth moving between child welfare and juvenile justice contributes to DMC in juvenile justice. The researchers also looked at whether a child’s status as a “foster care youth” influences judicial dispositions, thereby increasing the over representation of African Americans at deeper ends of the juvenile justice system. The findings suggest that the child welfare system is a significant pathway for African-American youths involved with the juvenile justice system.

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Disproportionate Minority Contact Action Network eNews-September/October

10/21/2011 01:05 PM

Oct 21, 2011 | DMC Action Network | PUBLICATIONS

This month's issue includes articles featuring:

Farewell and Thank You to Lisa Garry, A Visionary Advocate for Change
Connecticut Replicates DMC Action Network Strategies at the State and Local Level
The Future of Federal Juvenile Justice Funding
The Newest DMC and Juvenile Justice Resources

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Juvenile Diversion Guidebook

10/19/2011 04:40 PM

Mar 1, 2011 | Models for Change Juvenile Diversion Workgroup | PUBLICATIONS

Programs that divert youth from involvement in the juvenile justice system have become more frequent in response to the growing recognition that such involvement often is not necessary to achieve society’s goals. The concept of diversion was first adopted by the adult criminal justice system, and in the 1960s, became a topic of discussion in the juvenile justice system. In 1967, the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended exploring alternatives for addressing the needs of troubled youth outside of the justice system. In 1976, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Special Emphasis Branch provided $10 million in funding for the development of diversion programs. These efforts were driven by the belief that diversion programs might yield many benefits, such as: 1) decreased rates of recidivism; 2) less crowded detention facilities; 3) allowing youth the option to choose an alternative to processing; 4) providing more appropriate treatments at the community level; 5) reducing the stigma associated with formal juvenile justice system involvement; and 6) increasing family participation.

While diversion has been discussed and practiced for nearly four decades, there is little consistency in terms of what actually constitutes a diversion program or process. However, there is a common goal among diversion programs—to minimize a youth’s involvement in the juvenile justice system—but the means and processes to achieve this goal differ in a number of ways, including:

The segment of the youth population the program targets;
Who makes the decision as to which youth can or cannot be diverted;
The processing point in the system at which youth are diverted;
How charges against the youth are handled;
Consequences the youth faces for unsuccessful program completion;
Benefits the youth receives for successful program completion; and
What community-based services are provided, if any

Likewise, some jurisdictions have diversion programs that are governed by more formal rules and better defined service outcomes than others. Therefore, while diversion continues to emerge as an important practice in the juvenile justice field, these inconsistencies in what constitutes “diversion” call for clarification. This Guidebook was created to offer juvenile justice practitioners a roadmap for addressing these inconsistencies.

It is important for readers to recognize that this Guidebook does not consider all types of diversion programs in juvenile justice. Specifically, it does not consider:

Diversion efforts after formal adjudication or in juvenile corrections
Diversion from pre-trial detention

The focus of this document is on diversion programs designed to reduce the likelihood that youth will encounter formal processing prior to formal adjudication. Thus, detention diversion was excluded because it is different from other pretrial diversion situations that prevent youth from formal processing or adjudication. Diversion from detention only diverts youth from being placed in secure custody while still being formally processed. Therefore, diversion programs considered here range from the point of police contact, to pre- and post-petition, and up to the time just prior to formal adjudication.

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