Transitional Support for Leaving Confinement
After confinement, juveniles' experiences and training within correctional settings must be linked to their experience within their communities. Transitional services provide this link. Effective transitional programs increase the likelihood of reenrollment in school, graduation from high school, and successful employment. The lack of such services may undo the often significant progress made by juveniles while they were incarcerated. Successful transition between correctional facility and school requires integrated and coordinated prerelease strategies developed and implemented collaboratively by all agencies involved in providing both institutional and aftercare services to youth and their families.
An important reason for coordinating transition services is to avoid problems that arise from inadequate information sharing between correctional facilities and schools. As mentioned earlier in this Bulletin, juvenile offenders often arrive at school settings without any scholastic documentation from correctional facilities. There may be delays in forwarding correctional school records to the receiving school. When received, information may be unconfirmed, undocumented, outdated, or tainted by personal prejudices and interpretation. School personnel may have to rely on personal contacts for information. The process of obtaining the needed information is daunting, involving time-consuming phone calls to previous institutions and encounters with individuals who often refuse to disseminate information (frequently citing confidentiality laws) or who can provide only sketchy accounts based on memory alone. These problems impede the timeliness and quality of educational program development for youth who are making the transition from correctional facility to school.
OJJDP's training and technical assistance programs stress the importance of interagency information sharing in the coordination of services. Training programs include:
- The School Administrators for Effective Police, Prosecution, and Probation
Operations Leading to Improved Children and Youth Services Program (SAFE
Policy), a week-long course directed at reducing juvenile violence in
schools. The course stresses the importance of interagency agreements
for information sharing and coordination of juvenile services.
- The Chief Executive Course, an intensive 1-day orientation for local
executives of public and private agencies. The course emphasizes information
sharing as a method for improving the juvenile justice system.
- The Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program (SHOCAP), presented as a module in the SAFE Policy and Chief Executive Training programs and also available in a 40-hour course designed to assist SHOCAP jurisdictions in developing their own unique interagency information sharing agreements. The course requires the participation of policy-level officials from law enforcement, schools, juvenile detention and corrections, prosecution, and social services.
These courses have modules on laws and policies that impact information sharing and on techniques to maximize information sharing. Sample State legislation, consent policies, and judicial orders are also available to course participants.
In addition, OJJDP can provide direct technical assistance upon request to individual jurisdictions working on improving their information sharing. To learn more about training and technical assistance related to information sharing, contact the Training and Technical Assistance Division, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, 810 7th Street NW., Washington DC 20531; 202-307-5940.
Most effective strategies for helping juvenile offenders make the transition into the school and community include some formalized system of communication among the corrections staff and community social institutions—schools, mental health agencies, alcohol and drug treatment centers, and employment training and placement agencies, among others. The following model uses a formal interagency partnership established to address the needs of adjudicated youth and juvenile parolees.
Cluster Group Model: The New Jersey Gateway Academy
The Gateway Academy uses a cluster group model to manage information and coordinate services for juvenile offenders and their families. The cluster group comprises various service agencies (e.g., educational, mental health, probation, and child protection) assembled to benefit and support each individual youth. The group meets on a regular basis to share information and to ensure that needed services are provided without replication. A school representative (a principal, social worker, counselor, or homeroom teacher) typically serves as the chairperson of the cluster group; all information governing a juvenile is disseminated through the chairperson to other cluster members. As a result, all cluster members have access to needed information, avoiding a piecemeal approach to collecting information. As additional agencies or other interventions are needed, the appropriate services can be arranged, and duplication of services can be avoided.
For youth currently incarcerated or in residential placement, the cluster should be formed in time to establish communication with the school system prior to the youth's release. Major issues to be identified and addressed by the cluster group include adjudication, conditions of probation, academic level and educational placement, therapy needs, and method of followup.
The Gateway Academy is a partnership established between the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission (NJJJC) and Newark Public Schools (NPS). The partnership was formed as a direct result of the support provided by the YOEM initiative. Prior to YOEM efforts, NJJJC and NPS had functioned as independent entities, with no formal effort made to work as a team. Agencies exchanged educational records when students moved from one system to the other, but no personal contact or followup occurred. NPS recognized the importance of improving the flow of information between the school district and other educational providers working with the district's students. The Newark YOEM Conference, conducted through the collaborative efforts of the National School Safety Center and NJJJC, helped formalize NPS's desire to facilitate this exchange of information. Following the conference, NPS invited a representative of NJJJC to become a working member of its attendance improvement committee.
The attendance improvement committee found that a large number of students were "getting lost" in the transition from NJJJC programs back to Newark schools. The committee also recognized that students involved with NJJJC had special needs that should be addressed in greater depth. The Save Newark's Youth Task Force was organized to focus on these issues and needs. The task force included representatives from NJJJC, probation, the juvenile courts, Newark police, community service providers, and members of the community.
Over several months, the task force conducted an assessment of the needs of NJJJC/Newark students. It identified poor collaboration among service agencies as a major obstacle to the successful transition of students from NJJJC programs to the public schools. To overcome this problem, representatives from each social service agency agreed to serve as members of a multidisciplinary panel. Panel members are selected according to the needs of individual students to participate in a cluster group formed specifically to support each student. NPS serves as the umbrella agency under which all the service agencies work.
The task force also determined that a special program should be developed to serve students returning to the community from incarceration. The Gateway Academy, which was planned under the direction of the task force, opened in spring 1999. The Gateway Academy is a 12-month program designed to provide "one-stop service" for all Newark students who are returning from incarceration to the public schools. The centrally located facility houses the various service agencies working with this population of students, including parole, probation, and mental health and social service agencies providing drug and family counseling and employment training and placement. Academy staff are trained to provide a sound educational program that will address the special needs of students returning from NJJJC.
Student transcripts and needs are assessed by a team of personnel from NJJJC. This team determines the most appropriate educational setting for the student, whether it is the Gateway Academy or another school within the Newark Public School District. Regardless of educational placement, these students are associated with and receive services at the Gateway Academy. Each student is encouraged to be involved in afterschool activities, community service projects, and Saturday activities sponsored by the Academy. Students placed at the Academy complete the Academy's 12-month program and then return to their regular schools to complete their high school education and graduate.
For more information about the Gateway Academy, contact Jennifer Mitchell, Gateway Academy, 131 13th Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102; 973-733-7067.
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Law-Related Education Law-related education trains young people to think critically, solve problems, and understand legal rights and responsibilities. It also demonstrates the role of citizens in mitigating violence. It involves instruction about rules, laws, and the legal system. Students explore and reflect on their own and others' perspectives, express and defend their views, listen to the views of others, develop arguments for both sides of an issue, mediate, and formulate decisions and resolutions based on multiple and often conflicting concerns. The purpose is to train students for responsible citizenship. An additional purpose in juvenile justice or transitional educational placements is to help stop juvenile offenders from engaging in delinquent activity. Street Law, Inc., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people through law-related education. Participants in Street Law programs learn substantive information about law, democracy, and human rights through strategies that promote problem solving, critical thinking, cooperative learning, improved communication skills, and the ability to participate effectively in society. Formerly called the National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law, the program began at Georgetown University Law Center more than 20 years ago, when law students developed a practical law course that was taught in Washington, DC, public schools. Georgetown Law Center's Street Law Program continues to operate in the District of Columbia. Street Law, Inc., provides programs, materials, and services to students in kindergarten through 12th grade and young people in community-based settings and juvenile justice settings. Key programs include:
Street Law also offers a new curriculum infusing conflict resolution skills with lessons concerning community violence. The curriculum is being piloted in the Save Our Streets (SOS) program in Washington, DC. Youth ages 13 to 17 who have been charged with weapons offenses are referred to the program by the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Social Services Division, Family Branch. SOS serves as a preadjudication service for these youth, most of whom have been released to the custody of their parents. Students participating in SOS have ongoing court cases throughout their participation. Each lesson within the SOS program is designed to examine laws and issues that affect participating students and the community; discuss information on available community resources and how to use these resources to benefit participants, other youth, and the community; and provide opportunities to build conflict resolution skills. The lessons are taught by using law-related education's interactive strategies with a strong focus on student skill development. For more information on Street Law, Inc., write Street Law, Inc., 1600 K Street NW., #602, Washington, DC 20006; phone 202-293-0088. |
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New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission: Transitional Services In addition to the partnership formed with the Newark Public Schools, the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission (NJJJC) is involved in providing transitional services to students returning from NJJJC to other schools and communities throughout the State. Some of these services include the following:
For more information about NJJJC transitional services, contact Robert V. Coté, Jr., Executive Manager, Office of Education, New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission, 9 Quakerbridge Plaza, 3rd Floor, P.O. Box 108, Trenton, NJ 08625-0108; 609-631-4743. |
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| From the Courthouse to the Schoolhouse: Making Successful Transitions | |