Aloha!
This is a hello on this post and a goodbye for future posts. This has been a wonderful experience and I hope I have made an impact on the processes and procedures that effect youth at my Court center. Numbers wise, we averaged in the mid-eighties this past August, down from the 120's of last year and the mid 130's of two years ago.
The Detention Expediter position has not been posted for competitive process. This was a one year detail position I accepted last September 24, so I would have been bounced back to being a line Probation Officer on that date as the process for the Expediter hasn't even been started. Instead, upon the recommendation of my boss, I applied for a promotion and received it. I will now be the Detention Program Coordinator of Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement. We'll see if my first order of business can be to arrange a new title that isn't so wordy!!!
I will still be working with delinquent youth that are detained, and I hope to be able to make sure that juvenile detention reform is alive and well in our detention center. Thanks to the the three of you that read my blog and God bless each of you!!!
There are a lot of patriots in this country working hard each and every day to make this a better country. Thanks to everyone who is a part of the solution and I'll pray for everyone that is a part of the problem.
Ciao,
John Burkholder
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Strategic-O-Rama
Whew! My Court just completed its first ever Strategic Planning Session combining our three major initiatives: JDAI, DMC (which might become RED) and MDC (also called JDG). There's that acronym thing again. Spelled out they are: Juvenile Detention Alternatives, Disproportionate Minority Contact (which might become Racial/Ethnic Disparities) and Model Delinquency Court (also referred to as Judicial Delinquency Guidelines). Again, whew!
As a quick and basic refresher, JDAI promotes the proper use of juvenile detention directed at youth that are a serious risk to victimize the community and for youth that have continually failed to show up to Court to handle their legal obligations, while allowing youth that are not a high risk out of detention and providing the appropriate alternatives to detention and services to that youth to maximize their likelihood of success. DMC relates to the disparity in contact that people of color have with the criminal justice system. In particular, at PCJCC we look at the disparity at every decision-making point and try to make our decisions data driven and as neutral in nature as we can. MDC refers to 16 pillars of best court practices as determined by the National Council of Juvenile Court Judges, and my Court has been focusing on having faster court processes, on retaining and recruiting staff, and on working with our educational stakeholders.
There were probably over 100 concerned and dedicated people at our meeting, all there to determine what we find important and how we are going to proceed over the next year. As the Detention Expediter, I have been gathering information and trying to compile it into a presentable form. Out of the seven data slides the Court Director presented, six were mine. The bottom line we wanted to convey is that crime and arrests are down countrywide and specifically in our county, but we are still detaining fewer kids by far than we did five years ago. That these initiatives are in place and crime is not rising is an indication that the use of detention on kids is not a deterrent in and of itself. The last item conveyed is even with the decrease of youth in detention, the disparity for youth of color has increased and there is still more we can all do.
We'll see how the meshing of these events occurs over the course of the year. There were many people interested in our goals and the more people that are actively involved, the better the result. "Success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan." -Unknown author, but I heard it told as a Chinese proverb.
As exciting as this session was, I have a few reservations and have a measure of anxiety right now. The first item causing me distress revolves around James Bell, Executive Director (and founder) of the W. Haywood Burns Institute. Pima County had a contract for his consulting and data services, which has expired. Mr. Bell completed his last two contractual requirements of training a group of trainers from PCJCC to teach the rest of our Probation staff about DMC, and then reporting and participating in the Strategic Planning session. I already feel his loss, mentally. Mr. Bell is one of the most eloquent, real and true proponents for youth of all races and ethnicities that I have had the pleasure to meet. Here is the link to his portrait by Robert Shetterly. Now, our community partners and other agencies can still bring him in, and hopefully his work with the Tucson Police Department will allow us to maintain contact. His voice of reason and insistence on accountability are a strong voice for the youth in this country.
The second is how our session ended. I felt we needed more time and were rushed at the end. In addition, people who have not been involved in these initiatives were given leadership roles. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as those people will hopefully bring great energy and fresh insight into our direction. But... Those individuals don't have the history and personal knowledge of where we were at the beginning and the progress and barriers that have been experienced. Everything might be fine, but my anxiety surrounds the organization maintaining focus on completing our goals from over the past four years and continuing and building on the progress that has been made.
Beyond the Strategic Planning Session, I am completing my last presentation to PCJCC probation Teams today. It has been a pleasure being able to meet with all the teams and discuss the validation of our Risk Assessment Instrument (RAI, natch...), reviewing Low, Medium and High risk youth and talking about my belief that the vast majority of Low Risk youth can be released from detention, and that Medium Risk youth are best served by community supervision and having their needs met outside of incarceration. At the end of the day, there are only a few people that presented to me that they are here for a paycheck or they are here to "throw the book at" these kids. The vast majority of our Probation staff believe in the potential of kids and work everyday to try to help these kids succeed. With further education and training, I believe my department will take that next step to maximizing the potential of our Probation Department and that juvenile detention will be used as a last resort for youth that have shown themselves incapable of being worked with outside of detention.
That's it for this month! School starts soon and that usually means a lot of work for everyone in the juvenile justice field.
May God bless you and our youth.
As a quick and basic refresher, JDAI promotes the proper use of juvenile detention directed at youth that are a serious risk to victimize the community and for youth that have continually failed to show up to Court to handle their legal obligations, while allowing youth that are not a high risk out of detention and providing the appropriate alternatives to detention and services to that youth to maximize their likelihood of success. DMC relates to the disparity in contact that people of color have with the criminal justice system. In particular, at PCJCC we look at the disparity at every decision-making point and try to make our decisions data driven and as neutral in nature as we can. MDC refers to 16 pillars of best court practices as determined by the National Council of Juvenile Court Judges, and my Court has been focusing on having faster court processes, on retaining and recruiting staff, and on working with our educational stakeholders.
There were probably over 100 concerned and dedicated people at our meeting, all there to determine what we find important and how we are going to proceed over the next year. As the Detention Expediter, I have been gathering information and trying to compile it into a presentable form. Out of the seven data slides the Court Director presented, six were mine. The bottom line we wanted to convey is that crime and arrests are down countrywide and specifically in our county, but we are still detaining fewer kids by far than we did five years ago. That these initiatives are in place and crime is not rising is an indication that the use of detention on kids is not a deterrent in and of itself. The last item conveyed is even with the decrease of youth in detention, the disparity for youth of color has increased and there is still more we can all do.
We'll see how the meshing of these events occurs over the course of the year. There were many people interested in our goals and the more people that are actively involved, the better the result. "Success has a thousand fathers, failure is an orphan." -Unknown author, but I heard it told as a Chinese proverb.
As exciting as this session was, I have a few reservations and have a measure of anxiety right now. The first item causing me distress revolves around James Bell, Executive Director (and founder) of the W. Haywood Burns Institute. Pima County had a contract for his consulting and data services, which has expired. Mr. Bell completed his last two contractual requirements of training a group of trainers from PCJCC to teach the rest of our Probation staff about DMC, and then reporting and participating in the Strategic Planning session. I already feel his loss, mentally. Mr. Bell is one of the most eloquent, real and true proponents for youth of all races and ethnicities that I have had the pleasure to meet. Here is the link to his portrait by Robert Shetterly. Now, our community partners and other agencies can still bring him in, and hopefully his work with the Tucson Police Department will allow us to maintain contact. His voice of reason and insistence on accountability are a strong voice for the youth in this country.
The second is how our session ended. I felt we needed more time and were rushed at the end. In addition, people who have not been involved in these initiatives were given leadership roles. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as those people will hopefully bring great energy and fresh insight into our direction. But... Those individuals don't have the history and personal knowledge of where we were at the beginning and the progress and barriers that have been experienced. Everything might be fine, but my anxiety surrounds the organization maintaining focus on completing our goals from over the past four years and continuing and building on the progress that has been made.
Beyond the Strategic Planning Session, I am completing my last presentation to PCJCC probation Teams today. It has been a pleasure being able to meet with all the teams and discuss the validation of our Risk Assessment Instrument (RAI, natch...), reviewing Low, Medium and High risk youth and talking about my belief that the vast majority of Low Risk youth can be released from detention, and that Medium Risk youth are best served by community supervision and having their needs met outside of incarceration. At the end of the day, there are only a few people that presented to me that they are here for a paycheck or they are here to "throw the book at" these kids. The vast majority of our Probation staff believe in the potential of kids and work everyday to try to help these kids succeed. With further education and training, I believe my department will take that next step to maximizing the potential of our Probation Department and that juvenile detention will be used as a last resort for youth that have shown themselves incapable of being worked with outside of detention.
That's it for this month! School starts soon and that usually means a lot of work for everyone in the juvenile justice field.
May God bless you and our youth.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Show Me State Status
I had the privilege of spending time recently with Chad Campbell. Besides being alliterate, Mr. Campbell was the Chief Probation Officer of Buchanan County Juvenile Court, which is situated in St. Joseph, Missouri. He has moved to Arizona to accept a job with the Arizona Office of the Courts (AOC) as Director of the Arizona Judicial College.
My juvenile court had been planning a site visit there, as they have an expedited disposition process in which disposition (which would be sentencing for adults) happens the same day that adjudication (which is conviction for adults) happens. For my juvenile court, disposition takes place around four weeks after adjudication for out-of-detention youth and around two weeks after adjudication for in-custody youth.
Now, there are some differences between Buchanan County and Pima County. The first is that they are named after the 15th President of the United States of America, James Buchanan. We're named after the Pima American Indian tribe, that term coming from Wikipedia. Wikipedia is one of my favorite sources of information and I find great mirth in being referenced as "Johnipedia" at the Court given my talent for producing obscure references and bits of knowledge with undetermined value. Wiki further states:The Akimel O'odham or Pima are a group of American Indians living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona (USA) and Sonora (Mexico). The name means "river people". They are closely related to the Tohono O'odham (meaning "desert people", formerly known as Papago), the Hia C-ed O'odham, and the Sobaipuri, a now extinct group.
The name "Pima" apparently comes from a phrase that means "I don't know", used repeatedly in their initial meeting with Europeans.Now, until this minute, I did not know that my county was really the "I Don't Know" county! That's pretty funny. It also explains a lot of what is going on with local politics. I won't digress further onto that topic, lest this blog come under more fire than it is already under...
The key to St. Joseph's (from here on out will be referenced as St. Joe's) success with their disposition process happening right after adjudication is their comprehensive assessments that take place prior to adjudication. Now, this is an area in which I am not certain that Pima County will be able to replicate, given that our current practice is to perform the vast majority of the assessments after a minor has been adjudicated as a juvenile delinquent.
St. Joe's gives kids a dental, medical, educational and psychological assessment prior to the child being found guilty. What I like about that, is that services are usually arranged much more quickly and issues in a child's life can be addressed as soon as the issue is documented and referred for services. If a kid has bad teeth, St. Joe's works with the parents and local dentists to get that child dental care. The same with medical issues. Counseling can be arranged prior to Court, and if a minor is adjudicated, then they can be ordered to participate.
The off-side of this process is that there's an argument that guilt is being assumed for these kids rather than the child being given the presumption of innocence. If a child is found to innocent of the charges against them, that could be a substantial amount of work that was for naught. That being said, if a child is identified as having dental, medical and counseling issues, that information still goes to the parent and that parent can work with providers to receive services on a voluntary basis. If they don't, they don't, but at least they have that knowledge and option.
This system reminds me somewhat of Miami-Dade's Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC) that has most system participants at one building to assess and process cases. All police agencies refer all juvenile offenders to the JAC. The district attorney, public defender, probation officer and mental/behavioral health representative all are present when the kid is referred and are able to do their job on that case that day, instead of each agency working on that case over the next 45 days.
The DA reviews the charges for probable cause and decides whether they'll issue a petition or divert the case to a non-court resolution. The PD is able to meet with the client, find out about the situation and talk to the DA about a resolution, all while being present to protect the child's legal rights. The probation officer is able to discuss the matter with the DA, interview the child, arrange for detention alternatives or make the decision to have the child detained. The mental/behavioral health representatives are able to assess a youth, check their system for that child and put a plan in place for services if it is deemed that child has a need for them.
I love the JAC. This is a Show Me product, and when they presented their program and data at the Disproportionate Minority Contact conference in Denver, Co October 2007, I was, and remain, highly impressed. The benefits Miami-Dade receives from the JAC include multiple agency participation and collaboration, front end needs identified and fast service referral. The real Show Me benefit I saw was when the numbers on recidivism were shown. Even though Miami's population continues to increase, their number of arrests is decreasing. The majority of arrests police make are on new referrals, which shows that recidivism in Miami-Dade is low and this is attributed to the JAC.
The presenters believe that due to front-end services being provided for identified needs, kids have their issues handled quickly and do not reoffend anywhere near the level as when services are not quickly put into place. The JAC costs $11 million dollars a year and the estimated cost savings of diverting kids from juvenile detention, diverting kids from court and lowering the recidivism was estimated at around $75 million for the past seven years. The JAC almost pays for itself!
Back to St. Joe's and Mr. Chad Campbell. Since he moved to Arizona before we met with him in the Show Me state, a lot more people were able to meet with him than would have been able to go and see the same-day disposition in Missouri. A group of 15 to 20 people from the expedited disposition committee sat down over lunch with him to pick his brain and learn about the process there.Some immediate differences were noted up front.
St. Joseph's and Buchanan County have an estimated current population of 125,000. Pima County has an estimated current population of just over 1 million. Buchanan County has built a new juvenile facility, with five whole beds and an average daily population (ADP) of around 1.5 kids. I'm not sure what they're doing in Missouri to get that half a kid in detention... (Cue rim shot)
Pima County built a new facility around 2000 and built it for 302 beds. We're now down to 250 or so beds after some living units were converted to medical and psychiatric services and the Tucson-Pima Public Library runs an operational branch of the library in another living unit. Our ADP was around 117 last year and currently we have 78 youth in detention.
Now, if we had the same number of youth in our detention center on a correlated basis for population, Pima County would have between a 48 bed facility with 12 kids in detention (based on 125,000 pop for them) to a 66 bed facility with 17 kids in detention (based on 90 k pop). I fully envision how that size of a detention center would be possible here. With the use of alternatives to detention and a commitment to only detain high-risk youth and those that have proven they will not appear for Court, I believe we could replicate St. Joseph's success, adjusted for population proportion.
Mr. Campbell also stated that his county's adherence to keeping kids out of detention was not part of JDAI, but something that the leadership in the county believed necessary. That they are not receiving grant money or support from any foundation to do what they do just shows me that this initiative has inherent value and is spreading across the country based on the merits of what is being accomplished versus being spread as some hokey dogma backed by money.
Back to the JAC and St. Joe's. St. Joe's does not have the assessment center like Miami does, nor do they need it given their size. They do complete all assessments prior to adjudication, and as rehabilitation is the model, if a kid is not adjudicated as a delinquent, they still are offered services and the parents still walk away from the process with a medical, dental and behavioral health plan. How cool is that?
Some other differences between Buchanan and Pima counties are that St. Joe's runs their own non-secure residential treatment facility. Pima either contracts with mental health providers for all non-detention services or relies on our behavioral health Medicade partners or require parents to use their own private insurance. Buchanan has an all day school for youth, as well. We will not be pursuing a school run by the Court and are working with educational partners and charter schools to offer those services. The Drug Court model has been adopted for their entire probation department. Maybe I'll touch on how great the Drug Court model is next month.
When I asked Mr. Campbell about what they do with kids that are not a high risk to victimize the community but have a high level of needs, he stated that detention does not solve needs. Putting those kids in the community where they can receive services solves those needs. That could be the motto for JDAI.
Have a great 4th of July and celebrate the best nation God has ever graced this planet with. We have some problems, but we also have the solutions. Thanks to Mr. Campbell for being a part of the solution and I hope you'll join me in being a part of the solution, as well.
May God bless you this summer!
My juvenile court had been planning a site visit there, as they have an expedited disposition process in which disposition (which would be sentencing for adults) happens the same day that adjudication (which is conviction for adults) happens. For my juvenile court, disposition takes place around four weeks after adjudication for out-of-detention youth and around two weeks after adjudication for in-custody youth.
Now, there are some differences between Buchanan County and Pima County. The first is that they are named after the 15th President of the United States of America, James Buchanan. We're named after the Pima American Indian tribe, that term coming from Wikipedia. Wikipedia is one of my favorite sources of information and I find great mirth in being referenced as "Johnipedia" at the Court given my talent for producing obscure references and bits of knowledge with undetermined value. Wiki further states:The Akimel O'odham or Pima are a group of American Indians living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona (USA) and Sonora (Mexico). The name means "river people". They are closely related to the Tohono O'odham (meaning "desert people", formerly known as Papago), the Hia C-ed O'odham, and the Sobaipuri, a now extinct group.
The name "Pima" apparently comes from a phrase that means "I don't know", used repeatedly in their initial meeting with Europeans.Now, until this minute, I did not know that my county was really the "I Don't Know" county! That's pretty funny. It also explains a lot of what is going on with local politics. I won't digress further onto that topic, lest this blog come under more fire than it is already under...
The key to St. Joseph's (from here on out will be referenced as St. Joe's) success with their disposition process happening right after adjudication is their comprehensive assessments that take place prior to adjudication. Now, this is an area in which I am not certain that Pima County will be able to replicate, given that our current practice is to perform the vast majority of the assessments after a minor has been adjudicated as a juvenile delinquent.
St. Joe's gives kids a dental, medical, educational and psychological assessment prior to the child being found guilty. What I like about that, is that services are usually arranged much more quickly and issues in a child's life can be addressed as soon as the issue is documented and referred for services. If a kid has bad teeth, St. Joe's works with the parents and local dentists to get that child dental care. The same with medical issues. Counseling can be arranged prior to Court, and if a minor is adjudicated, then they can be ordered to participate.
The off-side of this process is that there's an argument that guilt is being assumed for these kids rather than the child being given the presumption of innocence. If a child is found to innocent of the charges against them, that could be a substantial amount of work that was for naught. That being said, if a child is identified as having dental, medical and counseling issues, that information still goes to the parent and that parent can work with providers to receive services on a voluntary basis. If they don't, they don't, but at least they have that knowledge and option.
This system reminds me somewhat of Miami-Dade's Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC) that has most system participants at one building to assess and process cases. All police agencies refer all juvenile offenders to the JAC. The district attorney, public defender, probation officer and mental/behavioral health representative all are present when the kid is referred and are able to do their job on that case that day, instead of each agency working on that case over the next 45 days.
The DA reviews the charges for probable cause and decides whether they'll issue a petition or divert the case to a non-court resolution. The PD is able to meet with the client, find out about the situation and talk to the DA about a resolution, all while being present to protect the child's legal rights. The probation officer is able to discuss the matter with the DA, interview the child, arrange for detention alternatives or make the decision to have the child detained. The mental/behavioral health representatives are able to assess a youth, check their system for that child and put a plan in place for services if it is deemed that child has a need for them.
I love the JAC. This is a Show Me product, and when they presented their program and data at the Disproportionate Minority Contact conference in Denver, Co October 2007, I was, and remain, highly impressed. The benefits Miami-Dade receives from the JAC include multiple agency participation and collaboration, front end needs identified and fast service referral. The real Show Me benefit I saw was when the numbers on recidivism were shown. Even though Miami's population continues to increase, their number of arrests is decreasing. The majority of arrests police make are on new referrals, which shows that recidivism in Miami-Dade is low and this is attributed to the JAC.
The presenters believe that due to front-end services being provided for identified needs, kids have their issues handled quickly and do not reoffend anywhere near the level as when services are not quickly put into place. The JAC costs $11 million dollars a year and the estimated cost savings of diverting kids from juvenile detention, diverting kids from court and lowering the recidivism was estimated at around $75 million for the past seven years. The JAC almost pays for itself!
Back to St. Joe's and Mr. Chad Campbell. Since he moved to Arizona before we met with him in the Show Me state, a lot more people were able to meet with him than would have been able to go and see the same-day disposition in Missouri. A group of 15 to 20 people from the expedited disposition committee sat down over lunch with him to pick his brain and learn about the process there.Some immediate differences were noted up front.
St. Joseph's and Buchanan County have an estimated current population of 125,000. Pima County has an estimated current population of just over 1 million. Buchanan County has built a new juvenile facility, with five whole beds and an average daily population (ADP) of around 1.5 kids. I'm not sure what they're doing in Missouri to get that half a kid in detention... (Cue rim shot)
Pima County built a new facility around 2000 and built it for 302 beds. We're now down to 250 or so beds after some living units were converted to medical and psychiatric services and the Tucson-Pima Public Library runs an operational branch of the library in another living unit. Our ADP was around 117 last year and currently we have 78 youth in detention.
Now, if we had the same number of youth in our detention center on a correlated basis for population, Pima County would have between a 48 bed facility with 12 kids in detention (based on 125,000 pop for them) to a 66 bed facility with 17 kids in detention (based on 90 k pop). I fully envision how that size of a detention center would be possible here. With the use of alternatives to detention and a commitment to only detain high-risk youth and those that have proven they will not appear for Court, I believe we could replicate St. Joseph's success, adjusted for population proportion.
Mr. Campbell also stated that his county's adherence to keeping kids out of detention was not part of JDAI, but something that the leadership in the county believed necessary. That they are not receiving grant money or support from any foundation to do what they do just shows me that this initiative has inherent value and is spreading across the country based on the merits of what is being accomplished versus being spread as some hokey dogma backed by money.
Back to the JAC and St. Joe's. St. Joe's does not have the assessment center like Miami does, nor do they need it given their size. They do complete all assessments prior to adjudication, and as rehabilitation is the model, if a kid is not adjudicated as a delinquent, they still are offered services and the parents still walk away from the process with a medical, dental and behavioral health plan. How cool is that?
Some other differences between Buchanan and Pima counties are that St. Joe's runs their own non-secure residential treatment facility. Pima either contracts with mental health providers for all non-detention services or relies on our behavioral health Medicade partners or require parents to use their own private insurance. Buchanan has an all day school for youth, as well. We will not be pursuing a school run by the Court and are working with educational partners and charter schools to offer those services. The Drug Court model has been adopted for their entire probation department. Maybe I'll touch on how great the Drug Court model is next month.
When I asked Mr. Campbell about what they do with kids that are not a high risk to victimize the community but have a high level of needs, he stated that detention does not solve needs. Putting those kids in the community where they can receive services solves those needs. That could be the motto for JDAI.
Have a great 4th of July and celebrate the best nation God has ever graced this planet with. We have some problems, but we also have the solutions. Thanks to Mr. Campbell for being a part of the solution and I hope you'll join me in being a part of the solution, as well.
May God bless you this summer!
Friday, May 9, 2008
Too True
The Juvenile Detention Expediter Blog has a new feature this month: Dilbert. I find a lot of Dilbert strips apply to any large organization, whether it is a corporation or a government agency. I have included the Dilbert Widget for your viewing amusement, but please take a look at the strip dated May 8, 2008.
My court wants to be a data-driven court, with our policies and direction formulated from unbiased data. An example of an action taken from data is our Domestic Violence Alternative Center (DVAC). For 2006, there were 800 or so Domestic Violence (DV) physical referrals, or arrests taken to the Detention Center, and about half of those kids were detained, or so I was told. With so many referrals from one particular crime, a response was formulated to have DV referrals diverted to another location unless the youth was out of control or a victim had been injured. Most of our DV charges do not involve an injury. Most involve a kid screaming at their parents or siblings, throwing things in their homes or getting physical without causing an injury, such as shoving or slapping. There have been over 120 referrals to DVAC, so if the 2006 numbers stood up, that would be a response to a problem that kept 60 kids out of our detention center. These are kids that are not a threat to community safety, but are kids that are having a problem with their parents.
Another aspect of gathering data is the amount of data gathered. It is difficult to make informed decisions without enough information. Conversely, too much information inhibits decision-making. A large portion of my work day is spent reviewing numbers, creating reports and chewing up data to provide to decision makers after semi-digesting it so that it is more palatable, easier to absorb and doesn't take so much time to review. If I achieve my goals on data I analyze, I present relevant facts that shed light on current issues and might even suggest solutions while saving my bosses important time, which they have very little of given the myriad demands placed on them from a multitude of sources.
Targeting data areas of interest is a tricky process. Thankfully I have a great ITSD department and they are very good at not only compiling the data I want to examine in a form I can examine it, but Sandi is an excellent report creator that has been creating reports long enough that she points out anomalies or areas of interest based on the numbers she's crunched in the past. If only I had the authority to use her amazing talents when it came time to break down stats for choosing fantasy football players...
Speaking of football, and who doesn't like to take every opportunity to do so, General Manager Ted Thompson (or just TT) ditched Green Bay's first round selection and picked Wide Receiver Jordy Nelson, or NelsonZZzzZZzz if you prefer, from Kansas State. People were complaining that day about the Packers not needing a wide receiver. Then TT cut Koren Robinson in what is part of an on-going youth movement and now TT is showing a touch of his mad genius in that he drafted the perfect player to replace him and also challenge for the #3 WR slot. however, if the Packers get any younger, fans will have to change their diapers at halftime. Jordy looks like a nice kid and I'm excited about our offense next year even though Favre has moved on.
I also am attempting to get a poll generator up on this blog, so keep an eye out for that in the near future!
Whether crunching data or planning vacation, I wish you a wonderful summer and may God richly bless you.
My court wants to be a data-driven court, with our policies and direction formulated from unbiased data. An example of an action taken from data is our Domestic Violence Alternative Center (DVAC). For 2006, there were 800 or so Domestic Violence (DV) physical referrals, or arrests taken to the Detention Center, and about half of those kids were detained, or so I was told. With so many referrals from one particular crime, a response was formulated to have DV referrals diverted to another location unless the youth was out of control or a victim had been injured. Most of our DV charges do not involve an injury. Most involve a kid screaming at their parents or siblings, throwing things in their homes or getting physical without causing an injury, such as shoving or slapping. There have been over 120 referrals to DVAC, so if the 2006 numbers stood up, that would be a response to a problem that kept 60 kids out of our detention center. These are kids that are not a threat to community safety, but are kids that are having a problem with their parents.
Another aspect of gathering data is the amount of data gathered. It is difficult to make informed decisions without enough information. Conversely, too much information inhibits decision-making. A large portion of my work day is spent reviewing numbers, creating reports and chewing up data to provide to decision makers after semi-digesting it so that it is more palatable, easier to absorb and doesn't take so much time to review. If I achieve my goals on data I analyze, I present relevant facts that shed light on current issues and might even suggest solutions while saving my bosses important time, which they have very little of given the myriad demands placed on them from a multitude of sources.
Targeting data areas of interest is a tricky process. Thankfully I have a great ITSD department and they are very good at not only compiling the data I want to examine in a form I can examine it, but Sandi is an excellent report creator that has been creating reports long enough that she points out anomalies or areas of interest based on the numbers she's crunched in the past. If only I had the authority to use her amazing talents when it came time to break down stats for choosing fantasy football players...
Speaking of football, and who doesn't like to take every opportunity to do so, General Manager Ted Thompson (or just TT) ditched Green Bay's first round selection and picked Wide Receiver Jordy Nelson, or NelsonZZzzZZzz if you prefer, from Kansas State. People were complaining that day about the Packers not needing a wide receiver. Then TT cut Koren Robinson in what is part of an on-going youth movement and now TT is showing a touch of his mad genius in that he drafted the perfect player to replace him and also challenge for the #3 WR slot. however, if the Packers get any younger, fans will have to change their diapers at halftime. Jordy looks like a nice kid and I'm excited about our offense next year even though Favre has moved on.
I also am attempting to get a poll generator up on this blog, so keep an eye out for that in the near future!
Whether crunching data or planning vacation, I wish you a wonderful summer and may God richly bless you.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Only 15 days...
There are only 15 days, 20 hours, four minutes and 31 seconds left as I write this. Left to what? What important event occurs that has a year round tracker on the precise date and time of the event? Is that when the Supreme Court will review their first case of the year? Is that when Congress is first in session for the year? Is there some vote that happens on that date? Nope. Those are far more grandiose than what this is tracking.
The tracker I look at almost daily is for when the NFL Draft starts. Yep, courtesy of http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/, I am waiting for that first round to begin. Now, once the draft is over, the new countdown starts, but no one pays attention to it until their team's season is over. Thankfully, I had a rather late start as far as checking in on the rankings of college players, viewing the never-ending supply of mock drafts and checking to see when the NFL draft starts.
If you are not a hard-core football fan, this will not seem important. Even if you are a hard-core football fan, you probably realize it is NOT important, but it is something that interests me a great deal. There are also thousands upon thousands that eagerly wait for any football related news in the off-season. That's an amazing thing to me, that so many of my fellow humans can be so intensely interested in an unimportant subject in the grand scheme of things. I often think that's why they are so interested in that subject, as paying attention to and acting on important matters takes a lot more effort and a lot more courage. Speaking of which, I received the newest copy of the CJNY (the Community Justice Network for Youth) newsletter today and would like to share a couple of paragraphs written by the Director of the Burns Institute, James Bell.
"It is up to us to turn motion into movement by giving young people our hearts, our sense of urgency and love. After all is said and done, justice is what love looks like in public and democracy is the flower that is nurtured by justice. We cannot have one without the other.
No act is too small, no gesture too humble to be unrecognized by our young people. I challenge you to be a champion. Quit waiting for someone else to make moves or “take the lead”. Hell, you be the change you’ve been waiting for."
My favorite line is that, "Justice is what love looks like in public and democracy is the flower that is nurtured by justice." I'll be using that line frequently in the future and hopefully I'll remember to credit James as the source. The rest of the front page of the newsletter is also well written and talks about the overuse of detention and how there are places that are not treating young people well. I am thankful that I work with an organization that has excellent facilities and a well-trained, caring staff.
That being said, no matter how gilded a cage is, it is still a cage. No matter how nice and caring the strangers that take care of you in detention are, they are not your family. They won't be coming home with you. The artificial environment created in detention does not prepare you to handle your real-life problems. You don't excel in your education. If the only thing keeping you away from using drugs is a cage, as soon as you are released from the cage you'll start using drugs again.
Too many children being detained are not a high risk to my community's safety, proven by qualified professionals studying the issue and validating that the release of these children is an appropriate response that does not increase crime in the community and that 9 out of 10 of those kids released will have no problems prior to their court date. Too often they aren't given the chance to show responsibility after a major life event. Too often they are presumed to be guilty and not innocent of the crime they were arrested for. Too often we rely on what we emotionally feel is the best thing for that child rather than absorbing the data on why detention is not good for children or that most likely the kid will be better off not being detained than staying in detention.
My shout out this month is to D.A. He is a colleague and he sent me this YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UVyjf5DcIU. The title of the video is The Confessions of a Racist. He created the video and it is definitely worth a look.
Well, I waited overnight before publishing this and we're now at 15 days, zero hours, 38 minutes and 14 seconds... But who's counting?
The tracker I look at almost daily is for when the NFL Draft starts. Yep, courtesy of http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/, I am waiting for that first round to begin. Now, once the draft is over, the new countdown starts, but no one pays attention to it until their team's season is over. Thankfully, I had a rather late start as far as checking in on the rankings of college players, viewing the never-ending supply of mock drafts and checking to see when the NFL draft starts.
If you are not a hard-core football fan, this will not seem important. Even if you are a hard-core football fan, you probably realize it is NOT important, but it is something that interests me a great deal. There are also thousands upon thousands that eagerly wait for any football related news in the off-season. That's an amazing thing to me, that so many of my fellow humans can be so intensely interested in an unimportant subject in the grand scheme of things. I often think that's why they are so interested in that subject, as paying attention to and acting on important matters takes a lot more effort and a lot more courage. Speaking of which, I received the newest copy of the CJNY (the Community Justice Network for Youth) newsletter today and would like to share a couple of paragraphs written by the Director of the Burns Institute, James Bell.
"It is up to us to turn motion into movement by giving young people our hearts, our sense of urgency and love. After all is said and done, justice is what love looks like in public and democracy is the flower that is nurtured by justice. We cannot have one without the other.
No act is too small, no gesture too humble to be unrecognized by our young people. I challenge you to be a champion. Quit waiting for someone else to make moves or “take the lead”. Hell, you be the change you’ve been waiting for."
My favorite line is that, "Justice is what love looks like in public and democracy is the flower that is nurtured by justice." I'll be using that line frequently in the future and hopefully I'll remember to credit James as the source. The rest of the front page of the newsletter is also well written and talks about the overuse of detention and how there are places that are not treating young people well. I am thankful that I work with an organization that has excellent facilities and a well-trained, caring staff.
That being said, no matter how gilded a cage is, it is still a cage. No matter how nice and caring the strangers that take care of you in detention are, they are not your family. They won't be coming home with you. The artificial environment created in detention does not prepare you to handle your real-life problems. You don't excel in your education. If the only thing keeping you away from using drugs is a cage, as soon as you are released from the cage you'll start using drugs again.
Too many children being detained are not a high risk to my community's safety, proven by qualified professionals studying the issue and validating that the release of these children is an appropriate response that does not increase crime in the community and that 9 out of 10 of those kids released will have no problems prior to their court date. Too often they aren't given the chance to show responsibility after a major life event. Too often they are presumed to be guilty and not innocent of the crime they were arrested for. Too often we rely on what we emotionally feel is the best thing for that child rather than absorbing the data on why detention is not good for children or that most likely the kid will be better off not being detained than staying in detention.
My shout out this month is to D.A. He is a colleague and he sent me this YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UVyjf5DcIU. The title of the video is The Confessions of a Racist. He created the video and it is definitely worth a look.
Well, I waited overnight before publishing this and we're now at 15 days, zero hours, 38 minutes and 14 seconds... But who's counting?
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
4 Core and Seven Years Ago
Yep, I got the title right. I'm also giving an acronym warning. Government systems love their acronyms and those involved get pulled right in, like JDAI (Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative).
There are four core areas addressed by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), passed by the U.S. Congress in 1974 and most recently reauthorized in 2007. I'll address those in the next paragraph. Seven years ago in 2001, the Juvenile justice system was coming to the realization that the raving hoards of Juvenile Super Predators had not manifested and that a new approach needed to be looked at, particularly to address those four core aspects of the JJDPA. New detention centers were built in several counties with large detention capacities in anticipation of a burgeoning crime wave that never hit our shores.
The Four Cores of the JJDPA are:
1) Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO). Prior to this act, states were detaining kids for ditching school, running away from home, staying out after curfew and for not obeying their parents. Any agency that takes federal money should not place status offenders in juvenile detention. In Pima County, that includes tobacco and alcohol possession violators.
2) Adult Jail and Lock-Up Removal. in some jurisdictions, children were placed in the same facilities as adults. Now, only children that are being prosecuted in the adult system can be housed with adults.
3) Sight and Sound Separation. For children that are being prosecuted as adults, contact with adults is prohibited to keep them safer. Children in adult facilities have a suicide rate eight times greater, are twice as likely to be assaulted by staff and are 50% more likely to be attacked with a weapon than kids in juvenile facilities.
4) Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC). Jurisdictions must address the disproportionality of minorities having contact with the justice system at all points, from arrest to sentencing to prison. You can Internet search the term and come up with reams of material to go through on this. The W. Haywood Burns Institute follows this issue closely and is working closely with several organizations to address DMC. In Tucson, Police Chief Miranda rightly brought the Burns Institute in to survey the department and find out what the beliefs of the rank and file were concerning DMC and how law enforcement and juvenile court interact. The Tucson Police Department is the first police agency in the country to actively address DMC. Congratulations to TPD for leading the way!
What does the JJDPA have to do with Detention Expediting? Well, the first area of getting children out of detention was removing the status offenders. When people started looking closely into why detention was bad for kids, they found that:
- Detention costs a lot of money and doesn't work as well as Alternatives to Detention (ATD). Detention costs around $50,000 per bed per year. For a facility of just 100 beds, that's around five million dollars being spent to keep kids locked up, and that's probably on the conservative side. We use a $155/day rate for our bed costs. We had an average rate of 118 last year, which puts the cost around $6,675,850 to detain those kids. Our good news is that in 2003, our average daily population was 176, which was a cost of $9,957,200. implementing the Juvenile Detentions Alternatives Initiative saved taxpayers more than three million just last year, and our crime rate per 100 k people has gone down, so it is not like those kids that were released generated a juvenile crime wave frenzy and compromised public safety.
- A key indicator of whether a kid is arrested again for a new crime is whether that child was detained. There are a number of factors surrounding this, but on a common sense basis, if you take kids who are not high risks to community safety and place them with kids who are dangerous, those low-risk youth start learning from the peers they meet in detention. Texas ran a study that showed that youth placed in alternatives to detention were 14% less likely to commit future crimes than kids that were locked up. Detention then becomes a self-defeating mechanism that does not change the behavior you want changed and introduces more negative influences into the life of the kid that gets detained.
- Detention effects the school and work paths for kids. Kids that are detained are more likely to fall behind in school, are less likely to complete their education and detention impairs the ability of kids to become employed. When a kid has a hard time completing school and maintaining a job, that kid is more likely to commit new crimes.
- Detention makes mental health disorders worse. Nationally, around two-thirds of kids in detention have a mental health diagnosis. Detention conditions, isolation from friends and family, not being able to share important events like Easter and the loss of liberty contribute to higher rates of depression and suicidal thoughts for incarcerated youth.
This is my blog and not a research paper, so I'm not going to cite every research paper that lead to the above statements. However, if you would like to review the literature and research, all of the above items were pulled from a very well written document by ACT 4 Juvenile Justice, and that PDF can be accessed at: http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/Downloads/FedLaw/jjdpa_briefing_book.pdf
When people talk to me about how detention isn't bad for kids and how kids need that "tough love," I do enjoy having resources that I can pull out and refute any of the non-researched opinions they may have.
May God richly bless you this Easter!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
V-Day Blues
Not my blues, mind you, the blues felt by children separated from their loved ones. My blues were the playoff blues as the New York Giants beat my Green Bay Packers on the way to their Super Bowl Championship. Keep that trophy warm, boys, we're coming for it next year...
I attended a Valentine's Day party this morning with my first grader. There were 14 parents in the classroom along with 18 students. The bond between parent and child was very apparent. After the party, the wonderful teacher had great love of reading week activities. Children in detention do not have those experiences with their family members and miss out on those educational and social events that help create positive and contributing societal members.
Our detention facility is one of the best (if not THE best) facilities in the country and it is the only accredited facility in the state of Arizona. The kids in detention are treated well by a staff that is well trained. There are programs in our detention center not found in many other centers, including yoga, art therapy, residential treatment readiness counseling and mentors from the Air Force base. Facilities include a full branch of the public library, in-house medical services, in-house psychiatric services, Child Family Teams (CFT) meetings that are held in detention with our mental and behavioral health Medicaid agencies, a computer lab in every living unit and an in-house detention school. What's so bad about any of that?
To start with, children are cut off from their families. They get a minimum of one ten-minute phone call and up to two one-hour visits per week. These are not contact visits. These are visits like those that you see on TV, with parents and children talking through phones and viewing each other through Plexiglas. There are 14 kids who have been in detention long enough to have had an extra visit for Christmas and New Year and five had Thanksgiving in detention as well. Their presents are sitting for them at home. So are the Valentine's Day treats, but not the cards they'd be exchanging with their friends from school.
There are teachers in detention, educational programs and even other students. What there is not is an environment that kids learn to navigate that gets them ready for a successful life. If a child gets out of hand in detention, they are sent back to their cell. They don't have to manage their own behavior, as the highly trained professionals will help them manage their behavior in a manner that will never happen when they get out of detention. They do not have the positive interaction with their peers away from adult contact and if they make friends in detention, which they will, there are good chances that those are not the friendships that law-abiding society wants to foster.
That disconnection from family brings emotional trauma to children, particularly to the 20 youth in detention under the age of 15. Our mental health partners are willing to have CFTs in detention because they recognize that a child that has lost their liberty and freedom and is separated from all the supports in that child's life is in crisis. That is why The Dangers of Detention details the number of kids that are diagnosed with depression after being detained at 33%. In addition, several studies are cited that detail that youth that are detained penetrate the system and receive longer and more severe conseqeunces than those youth that are not detained. The PDF is 24 pages, so I'll cut it off at that. For those that refute the numbers and dismiss the hidden consequences of detaining children, I invite you to read the research or provide more than your opinion on the matter. No matter how gilded a cage is, it is still a cage.
Well, I'm taking my workplace Valentine's home with me, and I will share more Valentine's with my wife and children. I am blessed to be able to share such love with my family on this day and every day. I hope you are equally as blessed. These children have found out an old axiom: one often never knows how important the relationships that are taken for granted are, until one loses them.
May God bless you!
I attended a Valentine's Day party this morning with my first grader. There were 14 parents in the classroom along with 18 students. The bond between parent and child was very apparent. After the party, the wonderful teacher had great love of reading week activities. Children in detention do not have those experiences with their family members and miss out on those educational and social events that help create positive and contributing societal members.
Our detention facility is one of the best (if not THE best) facilities in the country and it is the only accredited facility in the state of Arizona. The kids in detention are treated well by a staff that is well trained. There are programs in our detention center not found in many other centers, including yoga, art therapy, residential treatment readiness counseling and mentors from the Air Force base. Facilities include a full branch of the public library, in-house medical services, in-house psychiatric services, Child Family Teams (CFT) meetings that are held in detention with our mental and behavioral health Medicaid agencies, a computer lab in every living unit and an in-house detention school. What's so bad about any of that?
To start with, children are cut off from their families. They get a minimum of one ten-minute phone call and up to two one-hour visits per week. These are not contact visits. These are visits like those that you see on TV, with parents and children talking through phones and viewing each other through Plexiglas. There are 14 kids who have been in detention long enough to have had an extra visit for Christmas and New Year and five had Thanksgiving in detention as well. Their presents are sitting for them at home. So are the Valentine's Day treats, but not the cards they'd be exchanging with their friends from school.
There are teachers in detention, educational programs and even other students. What there is not is an environment that kids learn to navigate that gets them ready for a successful life. If a child gets out of hand in detention, they are sent back to their cell. They don't have to manage their own behavior, as the highly trained professionals will help them manage their behavior in a manner that will never happen when they get out of detention. They do not have the positive interaction with their peers away from adult contact and if they make friends in detention, which they will, there are good chances that those are not the friendships that law-abiding society wants to foster.
That disconnection from family brings emotional trauma to children, particularly to the 20 youth in detention under the age of 15. Our mental health partners are willing to have CFTs in detention because they recognize that a child that has lost their liberty and freedom and is separated from all the supports in that child's life is in crisis. That is why The Dangers of Detention details the number of kids that are diagnosed with depression after being detained at 33%. In addition, several studies are cited that detail that youth that are detained penetrate the system and receive longer and more severe conseqeunces than those youth that are not detained. The PDF is 24 pages, so I'll cut it off at that. For those that refute the numbers and dismiss the hidden consequences of detaining children, I invite you to read the research or provide more than your opinion on the matter. No matter how gilded a cage is, it is still a cage.
Well, I'm taking my workplace Valentine's home with me, and I will share more Valentine's with my wife and children. I am blessed to be able to share such love with my family on this day and every day. I hope you are equally as blessed. These children have found out an old axiom: one often never knows how important the relationships that are taken for granted are, until one loses them.
May God bless you!
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