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Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders and Other Non-Delinquent Youth Project
The CJJ “Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders and Other Non-Delinquent Youth Project,” (“DSO Project”) is a multi-year partnership that engages SAG members, judicial leaders, practitioners, service providers, policymakers and advocates to guide states in implementing practices that eliminate the use of locked confinement for status offenders and other non-delinquent youth, and connect them to family- and community-based systems of care that more effectively meet their needs. The DSO Project builds on more than two decades of CJJ leadership to advance detention reform, and promote detention alternatives that better serve youth involved with the courts, including youth charged with status offenses – or those offenses that would not be crimes for adults, such as running away or truancy.
Click here to read CJJ's Fact Sheet on the Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO), published May 2011.
The DSO Project is made possible with the generous support of CJJ’s more than 1,800 members nationwide and the Public Welfare Foundation.
For more information, please contact CJJ Deputy Executive Director Tara Andrews at 202-467-0864, ext. 109 or andrews@juvjustice.org, or CJJ Research and Policy Analyst Tashira Halyard at 202-467-0864, ext. 113 or halyard@juvjustice.org.
Background
Project Goals
National Advisory Committee
CJJ Publications
Media
Additional Resources
Background
Since 1974, the Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO) core requirement of federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) has prohibited the incarceration of status offenders, as well as non-delinquent youth involved with the courts, such as children alleged to be dependent, neglected or abused. Embracing this requirement, by 1988 states participating in the JJDPA had reduced status detentions by 95%, nationwide. In recent years, however, there has been a significant uptick in detentions among this population, signaling a shift away from deinstitutionalization and toward incarceration as a way to address non-criminal youth behaviors that are typically tied to troubled home environments and unmet mental health and learning needs.
In 2009, with the support of the Public Welfare Foundation, CJJ completed a national survey of the states and issued a first-of-its-kind report that assessed states’ compliance with the JJDPA. Above most other concerns, states cited challenges to DSO compliance, including judges’ over-use and misuse of the valid court order (VCO) exception to the DSO core requirement - which allows judges to order a status offender or non-delinquent youth detained under certain circumstances – and a real or perceived lack of effective court and detention alternatives that are readily accessible to families and the courts. These findings affirmed a position ratified by the CJJ Council of SAGs in 2008 that calls for a phasing out of the VCO exception, and for increased federal resources and supports to help states expand and family-connected and community-based alternatives to detention and formal juvenile court processing designed to meet the unique needs of status offenders and non-delinquent youth.
The CJJ DSO Project is an extension of these efforts, and will help CJJ, its members and allies, and the states achieve better outcomes for this youth population, their families and their communities nationwide.
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Project Goals:
- Highlight and broadly educate about policies and practices aimed at eliminating the use of locked detention for status offenders and other non-delinquent youth.
- Highlight and broadly educate about policies and practices to divert status offenders and other non-delinquent youth from formal juvenile court adjudication.
- Advocate for and inform local, state and federal policies and practices to support empirically-sound, community-based and family-connected continuums of service for status offenders and other non-delinquent youth.
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National Advisory Committee on the Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders and Other Non-Delinquent Youth:
In support of this project, CJJ has established a National Advisory Committee on the Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders and Other Non-Delinquent Youth, comprising 15 men and women from around the nation who have agreed to lend their expertise in effectively serving status offenders and non-delinquent youth without the use of detention. Collectively, these men and women, and the organizations to which they belong, have developed a number of resources that help to both define the problem and propose solutions. Current members include:
Patricia J. Arthur, Esq.
Senior Attorney
National Center for Youth Law
The Honorable Karen M. Ashby
Presiding Judge
Denver Juvenile Court, Colorado
Joyce Burrell
Deputy Commissioner, Division of Juvenile Justice and Opportunities for Youth
New York State Office of Children and Family Services
Patricia E. Campie, Ph.D.
Director
National Center for Juvenile Justice
Melinda A. Giovengo, Ph.D.
Executive Director
YouthCare
Robert “Robin” Jenkins, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer
North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention
CJJ Immediate Past Chair and Member, North Carolina SAG
Kaye Jones Templin
CEO
Gateway Children’s Services
Member, Kentucky SAG
Jessica R. Kendall, Esq.
Assistant Staff Director
American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law
The Honorable R. Michael Key
President
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Anne Lee, Esq.
Executive Director
TeamChild
Shawn C. Marsh, Ph.D.
Director, Juvenile and Family Law Department
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Yumari Martínez
Associate Director, Center on Youth Justice
Vera Institute of Justice
Annie Salsich
Director, Center on Youth Justice
Vera Institute of Justice
Terry Schuster, Esq.
Justice Corps Fellow
Juvenile Law Center
Claire Shubik-Richards
Senior Associate, Philadelphia Research Initiative
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Susan Kamp (ex officio)
CJJ Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Member, Vermont State Advisory Group
David Schmidt (ex officio)
CJJ National Chair
Chair, New Mexico State Advisory Group
Nancy Gannon Hornberger (staff advisor)
CJJ Executive Director
Mark Ferrante (staff advisor)
CJJ Director, Leadership and Training Programs
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CJJ Publications:
Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO): Facts and Resources
A Pivotal Moment: Sustaining the Success and Enhancing the Future of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act
“The Dichotomy of Judicial Leadership: Working with the Community to Improve Outcomes for Status Youth,” Juvenile and Family Court Journal, Spring 2010, submitted by CJJ members the Honorable Steven Teske, Judge, Clayton County Juvenile Court (GA) and former Georgia SAG Chair, and the Honorable J. Brian Huff, Presiding Judge, Jefferson County Family Court (AL)
“Improving Outcomes for Status Offenders in the JJDPA Reauthorization,” Juvenile and Family Justice TODAY, Summer 2010, submitted by CJJ Executive Director Nancy Gannon Hornberger
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Media:
“Juvenile Justice at a Pivotal Moment”, Roll Call, November 10, 2009, submitted by David Schmidt, CJJ’s National Chair and Ward Loyd, CJJ’s former National Vice Chair
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Additional Resources:
“Juvenile Status Offenses: Treatment and Early Intervention,” American Bar Association Technical Assistance Bulletin No. 29, 2007
Making Court the Last Resort: A New Focus for Supporting Families in Crisis, Vera Institute for Justice and the Models for Change Initiative of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 2008
The Dangers of Detention: The Impact of Incarcerating Youth in Detention and Other Secure Facilities, Justice Policy Institute, 2009
Representing Juvenile Status Offenders, American Bar Association, 2010
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