Disproportionate Minority Confinement and Contact
Disproportionate Minority Confinement and Contact(DMC)is the overrepresentation of any minority group or groups in secure custody, compared to their proportion of the general population. Reducing DMC is a core requirement of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) Formula Grants Program. Addressing DMC requires collaboration with multiple stakeholders including reviewing the data and trends regarding police contact and admissions for secure confinement.
In 2002 St. Clair County was selected as one of three sites in the state to implement the Disproportionate Minority Confinement project to seek ways to improve the current system to reduce the number of minority youth detained in the county’s detention facility. Through redesign of the Risk Assessment Screening Instrument and expanded hours of the Day Reporting Program there were significant reductions of minority youth detained. The instruments modifications resulted in a 13% decrease in the number of youth admitted and 23% reduction in the number of African American youth admitted. In 2005 the Day Reporting Program found within the first 9 months that the expanded hours resulted in the sanction of approximately 225 minority youth that would have otherwise been detained.
In 2004 the community and juvenile justice system worked together to create the Community Court Liaison position, with tremendous support from the Juvenile Judge, the States Attorney, and the Public Defender. The Liaison appears at all juvenile courts summons, screens youth and make recommendations to the Juvenile Judge, States Attorney and Public Defender for youth who should be referred to diversion alternatives. In conjunction with this a Clinical Committee established by the Coalition accepts referrals from all community systems to improve integration of efforts and also receives referrals from the court liaison. The Court Liaison refers cases to the Clinical Committee to provide diversion alternatives for the youth and family. This committee further advances the existing system by increased integration of family, school, and juvenile justice with local child welfare efforts. The creation of this position represents a significant achievement of the Coalition’s planning efforts.
The St. Clair County Juvenile Justice Council continues to collect and analyze local data to includethe number of minority youth detained and explores ways to reduce DMC through the Councils existing and future initiatives.
The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative
The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative(JDAI) is a nationally recognized, evidence-based juvenile justice system reform project launched in 1992 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Essentially, the purpose of JDAI is to demonstrate that jurisdictions can safely reduce reliance on secure detention while maintaining public safety. The 8 core strategies of JDAI are:
- Intergovernmental agency collaboration
- Use of data
- Objective admissions decisions
- Alternatives to detention programming
- Reform case processing
- Improve decisions regarding “special detention” cases
- Improve conditions of confinement
- Address racial and ethnic disparities
St. Clair County was recently selected to be 1 of 10 Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiatives (JDAI) in the State of Illinois. The County will be working with JDAI to decrease the utilization of detention through alternative initiatives. St. Clair County was also selected by JDAI as a site to pilot and implement more intensive work efforts in 2006. The County was selected because of the organized juvenile justice committee, community leadership and collaboration within this group. The project includes intensive assessment, development of goals from established domains and work toward specific site advancements.
For more information got to The Annie E. Casey Foundation. www.aecf.org
Redeploy Illinois
Redeploy Illinois has proven the program can reduce prison costs and prevent young offenders from falling into futures dominated by criminal behavior and long, costly prison terms. The Redeploy Illinois program has saved the State far more than the annual appropriation. In thefirst nine years of the program, participating counties sent 1,285 juveniles to IDJJ state facilities.This is a steep decline from the projected 3,078 youth that were likely to have been sent to IDJJ,based on the previous three-year trend; it represents a 58% reduction in commitments over thelife of the program. Given the current $111,000 per-capita annual cost to house a juvenile in anIDJJ facility, the savings to state taxpayers are considerable. St. Clair County has reduced juvenile incarceration to IDJJ by approximately 90%.
In 2005 St. Clair County was one of four pilot sites awarded funding for the Redeploy Illinois pilot. To meet statutory requirements the project requires sites to establish a continuum of local, community-based sanctions and treatment alternatives for juvenile offenders who would otherwise be incarcerated if those services and sanctions were not available. The community has successfully diverted over 21 youth in the first six months and is working towards a 25% reduction in Illinois Department of Corrections commitments. This most recent endeavor demonstrates delivery of high quality services in utilizing community-based alternatives.
The St. Clair County initiative has excelled and has been awarded ongoing funding support. Redeploy Illinois has implemented and expanded several evidenced based practices and offered community-based alternatives with the overall goals to decrease risk factors while increasing protective factors e.g. Functional Family Therapy (FFT), Multisystemic Therapy (MST), and Aggression Replacement Training (ART.) Research of these programs also demonstrates remarkable results in preventing further delinquent activity. Data reported from just this initiative demonstrates that there has been a 75% successful closure for children diagnosed with a mental health disorder that have received MST services and a 97% success closure for FFT. Other earlier practices included, the evidenced based practice Anger Replacement Training and the St. Clair County Detention Center, Day and Afternoon Reporting Center in 2005.
The St. Clair County Redeploy program continues to evolve and continues to utilize evidenced based practices that have successful outcomes. Therapists are presently using a cognitive behavioral treatment approach. The program also uses the Washington Aggression Interruption Training (WAIT) a cognitive behavioral intervention designed to assist youth with aggression, reduce anti-social behaviors, and offer an alternative of pro-social skills. Trauma focused treatment is an increasing practice, Redeploy workers are currently trained in Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC) to provide trauma informed care.
Teen Court
Visit The Teen Court Foundation for more information regarding this program.