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Juvenile Justice Task Force Makes Recommendations

The Greeneville Sun - 1/16/2018

Tennessee's juvenile justice system needs fixing. In response, Gov. Bill Haslam convened a multi-discipline task force last year to study cracks in the system and make recommendations on how to make it better.

The resulting recommendations are made "in order to help Tennessee better protect public safety and hold youth accountable by expanding community-based options ... proven to reduce recidivism and improve outcome for youth who come into contact with our state's juvenile justice system."

Last month, the Joint Ad-hoc Blue Ribbon Tennessee Task Force on Juvenile Justice delivered a set of data-driven policy recommendations to state leaders.

The task force consists of elected leaders, judges, state court officials, educators, law enforcement officials and specialists in the field of juvenile justice. Co-chairs are Speaker of the House Beth Harwell and state Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris.

The panel intended to protect public safety and contain costs by focusing system resources on the highest-risk youth, preventing deeper juvenile justice system involvement of lower-level youth through early response, and sustaining effective practices, according to a news release.

REVIEW PROCESS

Over the course of six months, the task force reviewed Tennessee's juvenile justice system data and national research.

Study findings include:

Youth charged with lower-level offenses make up the majority of the juvenile justice population. Nearly half of youth placed in out-of-home facilities are committed for non-felonies.Youth under state supervision are staying longer and have more out-of-home placements while in custody than five years ago.Community-based interventions that effectively hold youth accountable, reduce recidivism and keep families intact are not available across the state - especially in rural jurisdictions. A lack of statewide guidance for the courts leads to inconsistent outcomes for youth.Data collection and information sharing is insufficient and inconsistent across the state, leading to a lack of accountability and inability to measure the system's effectiveness.

"We know there are ways to change Tennessee's juvenile justice system for the better," Harwell said. "These recommendations were created by Tennesseans for Tennesseans, and they give us an opportunity to improve the system for juveniles across the state."

Norris said the data-driven recommendations "provide an opportunity for us to align our system with more effective practices and with the values we share as Tennesseans."

"That means less crime, lower costs for taxpayers, and better outcomes for Tennessee's youth and families," Norris said.

POLICY

RECOMMENDATIONS

Policy recommendations' successful implementation depends on expanding community-based services statewide, careful timelines and phased effective dates, particularly for substantial changes to criteria for Department of Children's Services custody, the study states.

Recommendations to "prevent deeper juvenile justice system involvement" include:

Empower schools to respond to student behavior without implicating the courts. Examples include changing the parameters of school zero tolerance policies to allow discretion in suspension and expulsion for drug possession, authorizing school district diversion treatment programs for drug possession and delineating clearly in law the roles of school resource officers.Improve communication to address truancy concerns without court involvement where possible, including by restructuring court responses toward social work and family services, and away from sanctions.Expand law enforcement responses, including authorizing the use of citations in lieu of arrest for misdemeanors as is currently authorized for adults.Create a structured system that standardizes diversion of lower-level youth from the system, while simultaneously enhancing access to services and support.Improve access to quality counsel and ensure that all juveniles have the right to counsel in all delinquent and unruly cases. The recommendation also suggests a juvenile defender resources center, or regional centers, that administer the system.

Recommendations to "protect public safety by focusing system resources" include:

Focus secure detention on youth who pose a risk to the community, and clarify in law that detention "is a temporary holding facility that does not meet the definition of long-term care for youth, treatment, foster care or placement" to ensure secure detention "should be minimized or avoided."Establish lengths of supervision and state custody, and ensure appropriate levels of supervision based on the youth's risk and needs.Limit the use of out-of-home placement for youth who violate supervision conditions and ensure that responses provide for accountability and address the youth's assessed risks and needs.Tailor the use of DCS custody and "reinvest" into evidence-based services.Focus transfers on the youths charged with the most serious violent offenses who cannot safely be served by the juvenile justice system.Improve structured decision-making for youth on community supervision and in out-of-home placement.

Recommendations to "sustain effective practices through oversight and investment" include:

Reinvest in community programming, including the reinvestment of DCS funds to conformed task force recommendations that impact youth in DCS custody.Improve data collection, training and oversight.