CJJ's 2020 Annual Conference Will Be Virtual
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CJJ's 2020 Annual Conference will be entirely virtual this year out of concerns for our members and their safety.
This year's conference will take place November 18-21. This year's theme is "
Dreaming Big Together: Youth Justice Reimagined
." This year's Annual Conference will focus on the latest research, developments, and challenges facing our field today. Specifically, the conference will focus on:
- How can states and communities serve as leaders in shaping a better juvenile justice system for our most vulnerable youth?
- How can we improve collaborations with young people with lived experiences in the systems we work with?
- What can be done to build on successes and continue to improve systems so that they best serve young people, including those touching multiple systems?
- What role do advocacy and public health play as communities seek to improve services and provide for trauma-informed care that addresses and heals multi-generational trauma?
If you have already registered, your existing registration will continue to be honored. However, because this is a virtual event and does not cover the cost of meals, we are reducing registration costs, as noted below. Please click
here
to let us know whether you would like to use the additional funds to register a second person, make a tax deductible donation to CJJ, or for a conference registration in 2021. Please feel free to email our Executive Director, Naomi Smoot Evans, at
evans@juvjustice.org if you have any questions or concerns.
To register for the conference, click
here
.
To view a draft agenda, click
here
.
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Regular Registration
July 8 - Nov. 16
$200 / Members
$250 / Non-Members
$95 / Students
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Late Registration
Nov. 17-20
$225 / Members
$275 / Non-Members
$100 / Students
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CJJ invites you to consider sponsoring this year's Annual Conference. Sponsorship dollars help support a broad range of necessary functions, including materials production, speaker and workshop support, youth engagement, and other general functions.
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Join CJJ for the 2020 Virtual Youth Summit
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The Summit will take place on Wednesday, August 19 & 26 and September 2 & 9 from 3:30-5:00 p.m. EDT. All content is being offered free of charge, and is intended for audiences who are under the age of 28.
This year's topics include:
- Youth Voice and Advocacy; August 19
- Child Welfare and Youth Justice; August 26
- Sentencing Reform; September 2
- Mentoring and Reentry; September 9
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CJJ is excited to announce that we are moving to a new Washington, DC office! We can now be reached at:
1629 K Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006-1631
Additionally,
we have a new phone number
. Our staff members can now be reached at:
(202) 827-9751
Please update your information accordingly.
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The House Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee has recommended modest increases for juvenile justice programs. The increases are as follows:
- JJDPA Title II- $65 million, with $500,000 for competitive demonstration projects (currently funded at $63 million)
- JJDPA Title V- $44 million, up from $42 million. Of this sum, $28.5 million would be designated as follows: $3 million to prevent trafficking of girls, $5 million for Tribal youth; $500k for internet site for children of incarcerated parents; $2 million for girls in justice; $10 million for opioid affected youth; $8 million for children exposed to violence.
$3 million is also included for juvenile defense (up from $2 million) and $100 million for mentoring (up from $97 million).
The full bill text is available
here
.
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Police Free Schools: Investing in Our Youth
Wednesday, July 22 at 3:00 p.m. EDT
Research shows
that for many students, especially Black and Brown youth, the presence of police in their schools has proven to be harmful and dramatically disrupts learning environments. Nationwide,
14 million
students are in schools with police officers but no counselor, nurse, psychologist, or social worker. Additionally,
students of color are disproportionately arrested
in school compared to white students, fueling the school-to-prison-pipeline.
Learn from the
Education Justice Alliance
, located in Raleigh, North Carolina and a member of the Dignity in Schools Campaign, about ways to safely remove police officers from schools and reinvest in youth by funding support staff, such as school psychologists, mental health therapists, school counselors, and nurses. This webinar will provide the historical context of school resource officers and the specific impact on the criminalization of Black and Brown youth, illustrate how to safely have police free schools, and provide local examples of communities that have invested in alternatives to policing at school.
Presenters:
Letha Muhammad
, Director, Education Justice Alliance
Fernando Martinez
, Director of Organizing, Education Justice Alliance
This webinar is free for CJJ members. To become a member, click
here
.
To register for the webinar, click
here
.
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The Intersectionality of Communication Disorders and Justice-Involved Youth
Thursday, August 20 at 3:30 p.m. EDT
This presentation will discuss the intersectionality of Cognitive and Communication Disorders and youth's involvement with the justice system, from school to confinement. The presentation will detail how communication and cognitive disorders can impact all critical points in the youth's life and result in unfavorable outcomes. The presentation will also discuss how communication disorders are sometimes confused, overlooked, and disregarded as "negative" behavior in justice-involved youth (from the initial hearing through post-disposition). Dr. Stanford will also explore the limitations and risks that communication and cognitive disorders can manifest and briefly discuss strategies for juvenile justice professionals who are in contact with this population of youth.
Presenter:
Shameka Stanford, Ph.D.
, CCC-SLP/L, Assistant Professor - Communication Sciences & Disorders, Juvenile Forensics Speech-Language Pathologist, CSD Social Justice Specialist
This webinar is free for CJJ members. To become a member, click
here
.
To register for the webinar, click
here
.
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Authentic Youth-Adult Partnership in Juvenile Justice
Thursday, September 17 at 3:00 PM Eastern
Many SAGs, along with juvenile justice agencies and other collaborative bodies, continue to strive toward unmet goals for building an authentic, sustainable youth-adult partnership. This webinar is for you. Laura Furr will share principles, models, and concrete best practices of youth-adult partnership for the juvenile justice field, as well as opportunities for further learning. Through her business, Laura supports adult-led organizations or collaborative bodies that make decisions affecting young people to plan and implement youth-adult partnership in their decision-making.
Presenter:
This webinar is free for CJJ members. To become a member, click
here
.
To register for the webinar, click
here
.
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New Consulting Service for Strengthening Youth Partnerships
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Author:
Laura Furr is owner and manager of Laura Furr Consulting LLC and Chair of Washington DC’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Group. For more information, visit
lfurrconsulting.com
or contact Laura at
laura@lfurrconsulting.com
.
Shared power, shared accountability, shared resources, shared language. These four core principles support authentic youth-adult partnership and set it apart from other forms of youth engagement.
The juvenile justice field is full of opportunities to improve decision-making through youth-adult partnership. Some examples where youth and adults can partner in the juvenile justice field include:
- SAGs or other collaborative bodies,
- reform coalitions,
- assessment center governance,
- juvenile justice agency oversight,
- law enforcement accountability boards, and
- non-profit governance.
Laura Furr recently celebrated a year of running her own business that provides customized capacity building and strategic planning to organizations seeking to achieve youth-adult partnership outcomes. Laura focuses on creating new decision-making tables that center inclusion and anti-oppression.
Further, partnerships are only as strong as the individuals in them, and, while organizations exist to support youth voice, adults rarely have the opportunity to build their own capacity as partners to youth. In response to this need, Laura provides virtual
training and coaching services for adults who want to strengthen their skills and knowledge to partner with youth.
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Want to see news that's important to you in the CJJ Members and Partners section?
Join CJJ as a member today!
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Would You Like to Blog for CJJ?
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CJJ is looking for bloggers for
CJJ Today
to author stories and posts about juvenile justice. We're particularly interested in stories from
State Advisory Group members
or staff, CJJ
individual
or
youth members
, and CJJ
organizational members
, about issues at the state or local level, interesting programs or approaches, and perspectives about the course of juvenile justice reform at the local or state level. We also welcome blog posts from other juvenile justice system stakeholders. Blog posts can be between 400-750 words in length. Click
here
to see our other guidelines for blogs.
Suggested topics could include:
- School to Prison Pipeline
- Girls in the Juvenile Justice System
- Remedying Racial and Ethnic Disparities
- Adolescent Brain Development
- Evidence-Based Practices
- Status Offenses
- Family and Youth Involvement
- Promising Practices or Program Spotlights
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Member Spotlight: Maryland
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The Maryland Department of Juvenile Services has had a strong response to COVID-19 pandemic. The Department has tested hundreds of staff and youth and has mitigated the spread of the virus by following guidelines from the DJS health team, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Maryland Department of Health.
During DJS’ response to COVID-19, they found it necessary to streamline their intake process, review cases with a priority to serve youth in the community, and overcome barriers to successfully support youth in the community. This could not have been possible without the support of their partners at the State’s Attorney’s Office, the Office of the Public Defender, and the valuable involvement from the Court of Appeals, who issued an order that modified the standard of review for these cases.
These strategic moves that assisted in the mitigation of COVID-19, have become a permanent change at the agency. As with many juvenile justice agencies across the country, the population at DJS has been decreasing for many years and during the COVID-19 pandemic, it made sense to consolidate their resources, allowing them to maintain the necessary services to treat their youth, which better aligns with DJS’ population trends.
The Department’s approach to reducing incarceration has not only aided in mitigating the spread of the virus, but also mitigated long standing areas needing improvement such as racial disparities and using incarceration for low level offenders. Since March, DJS’ committed population saw a 56% decrease, with a drop in the proportion of misdemeanors and youth of color as well. Now they can move forward with a new baseline and push further towards a system that truly embraces the developmental model, which recognizes that there are risks inherent with incarceration, no matter what the circumstance. This also
confirms that the Department should only use incarceration as a last resort, because that person poses an unreasonable risk to community safety.
As DJS witnessed a population drop, it took a careful look at its residential services. The J. DeWeese Carter Youth Facility, which was a hardware secure facility for girls, and the Meadow Mountain Youth Center, which was a boy’s staff-secure facility, were recently closed. With a need for a girl’s program in the state, the Department opened Mountain View, a new six-bed girls’ facility, on the campus of Backbone Mountain Youth Center. The girls will now be in a staff-secure facility, which affords them significant individual attention and access to community resources. The new residents will also have access to a college program in Garrett County, share ample recreation space, and participate in more off-ground outings. The case for closing down some of their residential capacity was strong prior to COVID, as the Department has sufficient capacity to meet their population needs now and in the future.
DJS continues to review the juvenile detention and committed populations to identify youth that may be safely managed in the community. In evaluating whether to recommend community supervision, DJS considers factors specific to each youth, including their medical history, the availability of family or other support systems in the community, and ultimately public safety. The best interest of the child weigh heavily when formulating recommendations and when moving to bring a youth’s case to the attention of the local courts for review. The courts make the decision on whether to release a youth, and DJS
strives to ensure the court has a comprehensive overview of a youth’s circumstances, risk level, and the Department’s continued ability to supervise youth successfully in the community during this crisis.
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Other News and Announcements
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Events and Trainings
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) will host their 83rd annual
National Conference on Juvenile Justice
. The conference will take place November 8-11, 2020 in Pittsburgh, PA.
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New Publications and Resources
Campaign for Youth Justice and Justice Policy Institute released a new brief entitled, "
The Child Not the Charge
." The brief calls for the end of automatic transfer of youth to the adult court system.
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CJJ invites you to share news from your SAG, organization, state, or region! Inclusion and editing of submissions are subject to CJJ editorial guidelines.
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The Juvenile Justice Monitor is brought to you by staff and volunteer leaders of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, and supported by membership fees paid by CJJ's State Advisory Group Members, Members at Large, Organizational Members, and allies. We are grateful to all for their ongoing support.
Coalition for Juvenile Justice
1629 K Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006-1631
(202) 827-9751
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