We seek to first address for those who hold power in Arizona to influence the structure and function of youth legal systems, their level of awareness, acknowledgment and understanding of our State’s traumatic history and current reality as it pertains to the relationship between our systems and communities of color, so that we will change policies, practices and procedures that do harm. This will happen only through improved relationship between African American/Black communities and the youth legal system, demonstrated by youth legal systems be able to accept authentic invitations for engagement. Lastly and in tandem with our other goals, we will build relationships across agencies as we have identified that Arizona’s legal systems entities working in silos negatively impact our ability to be successful in these efforts.
We wish to address the current hostility and ban towards teaching awareness, acknowledgment and understanding of systemic/institutional bias, systematic investments and divestments, and equity as it relates to race. We will aim to provide better understanding on these topics and attempt to shift the narrative that these topics are “controversial” or that they contribute to “reverse discrimination”. We will advocate to place a priority on ensuring that people who are hired by our agencies are competent in race-based issues, concerns, and barriers. We wish to undertake initiatives to support community providers, agencies, churches, schools, non-profits, etc. to increase their capacity to do the work of true prevention, as opposed to diversion. We wish to improve the access to these services and the capabilities and competencies needed to manage wealth so that these providers/services can focus their resources on members in these communities. As representatives of Arizona’s agencies, we will address current policies and procedures that contribute to disparities based on race and ethnicity. We will also find innovative and genuine ways to build relationships amongst ourselves, our community partners, and the black communities.
One barrier that the team faces is a divided political environment at the state level. During the current legislative session, a bill was introduced to ban or outlaw diversity, equity and inclusion programs in state and local governments and the university system. The bill has also been crafted to restrict funding for use of such programs and requiring workers to participate.
We seek to address the overrepresentation of youth of color in the juvenile justice/youth legal system by breaking the ‘foster care to prison pipeline.’ As youth of color are also disproportionately represented in child welfare, our work includes reducing the overall population of children in the system.
Reform efforts to reduce the numbers of youth of color in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems include identifying and interrupting bias and discriminatory practices in both the dependency and juvenile justice systems; ensuring CLC is an anti-racist workplace; and focusing resources on early intervention and prevention services. Strategies may include efforts to elevate youth voice, improve internal training agendas, advance legislation, and improving data processes.
Challenges include staff turnover not only at CLC but within our local child welfare agency. Inconsistency in leadership has created an environment in which projects have not come to fruition to make impactful changes. Another challenge is inconsistent data points and descriptions between systems including the way client and staff racial identity is identified, gathered, and analyzed which plays an important role in illustrating the need for systems change.
There is a disproportionate minority representation of Native American, specifically Navajo, youth at each decision point in the juvenile justice system in Coconino County. We lack front-end services, earlier in a child’s and family’s life, that would help address their needs in ways that would help prevent them from entering the formal justice system. We also need to focus inward and build a more culturally sensitive workforce who understands and acknowledges historical trauma and the impacts it has on the clients we serve. We hope to work collaboratively to change practice and policy around building a culturally sensitive work force, prevention and deflection work, juvenile diversions, as well as the deployment of culturally relevant services throughout a youth’s and their family’s involvement in juvenile justice (i.e. building a Hogan adjacent to detention for healing ceremonies). Ideally, we hope to create opportunities to aid families in need before system involvement through front-end prevention work tailored to the community that we serve. Barriers to this work include turnover of essential stakeholders, both locally and on tribal lands which creates instability in long-term efforts; a disagreement from funding sources on the “authority” of Juvenile Court’s scope of work; and a real danger of our educational partners losing funding over publicly acknowledging racial disparity and inequity. In our state, semantics and strategy will be essential to move this work forward in meaningful ways.
Equitable access to programs and services, to include both intensive wraparound services and community-based supports for youth who are experiencing the juvenile legal system at a disproportionate rate, when compared to the overall youth population of King County.
Exploration of quantitative data to gain a comprehensive understanding of access to program and services at multiple legal system decision-points (e.g., pre-filing diversion, alternatives to secure detention, juvenile probation). The data assessed will allow the King County team to identify a specific decision-point, and area of service delivery, as an area of focus. The team will identify strategies to eliminate disproportionate referral, access, and completion of services.
Barriers include funding models that minimize the ability to provide adequate resources to community-based partners and organizations. Funding streams may limit the availability of culturally responsive and/or appropriate services for youth encountering the juvenile legal system. Racial bias within the legal system is often discussed but is still prevalent at decision-points.
The Travis County Juvenile Probation Department (TCJPD) youth population demographics are consistent with the disparate numbers seen across the country. Despite TCJPD’s efforts to decrease disproportionate minority contact (D.M.C.) and a sharp decrease in the overall number of juvenile referrals in recent years (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), our internal data shows an increase in disparities for some minoritized populations. For example, from FY19 to FY22 overall juvenile referrals to TCJPD decreased by 58% (Latinx/Hispanic youth referrals decreased by 66.5%, White youth referrals decreased by 56%, and Black youth referrals decreased by 39%). During this same timeframe, disproportionality in youth referrals increased by 5% for Black first-time offenders and 11% for all Black youth referrals. According to additional data we’ve analyzed, disparities are consistently present for minoritized individuals throughout the entire intake and court process.
During our pre-program team meeting, the Travis County team brainstormed potential reform efforts that could be used to address DMC in the future. Suggestions included policy alterations, additional diversion options, and consistent implicit bias training with all decision makers. The team proposed centering the community and those with lived experience as we collaboratively develop solutions. We agreed that our first step is to learn anti-racism strategies during the Certification Program and integrate them into action plans that address disproportionate minority contact at intake and court decision points.
During our pre-program team meeting, the Travis County team brainstormed potential reform efforts that could be used to address DMC in the future. Suggestions included policy alterations, additional diversion options, and consistent implicit bias training with all decision makers. The team proposed centering the community and those with lived experience as we collaboratively develop solutions. We agreed that our first step is to learn anti-racism strategies during the Certification Program and integrate them into action plans that address disproportionate minority contact at intake and court decision points.
Critical decision points and policies/policy gaps along the school discipline pathway and law enforcement pathway (including School Resource Officers) that contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in engagement with the juvenile justice system.
Once identified, we would like to advance policy recommendations that will provide structure at critical decision points toward ensuring that equitable school discipline decisions are made and that punitive measures are taken as a last resort and only where appropriate.
We are currently working on building out a Sequential Intercept Map for the school and law enforcement pathway that leads up to juvenile justice involvement. Barriers include: 1) challenge in capturing representative voices: community/parents/youth + school districts + law enforcement + juvenile justice system; 2) the persistent teacher shortage coupled with the steady population increase in the area and the impact of the COVID lockdown, with many students now out of the rhythm of attending school and remaining focused, it is difficult to gain access to teachers and administrators to discuss their processes for school discipline and to consider allotting time to learn alternative ways of discipline.