Successful Strategies for Juvenile Justice Reform

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Successful Strategies for Juvenile Justice Reform
PTA 2009 Legislative Conference Advocacy
Leadership Building Coalitions, Forming
Partnerships, Swaying Votes. Presenter Jessica
Sandoval, Director of National Field Operations,
Campaign for Youth Justice
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State Successes

• In recent years, diverse state-based campaigns
  throughout the country have accomplished major
  reforms to juvenile justice policy and practice.

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Essential Elements of a Successful Strategies and
Tactics

• Set goal
• Develop key powerful champions within the
  legislature
• Campaign as an organizing vehicle, including
  slogans, key phrases and a public face of the
  campaign
• Seize political opportunities
• Keep the media pressure on with a weekly hit
• Tie the campaign to your targets with local and
  community engagement
• Involve parents and youth on the grassroots level
• Commission as a policy platform vehicle and
  organizing tool

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Goals for Strategies

• Provides cover for elected officials
• Show strong constituency support
• Media coverage to keep the buzz

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Raise the Age Connecticut

• Before Connecticut, one of three states to try
  all 16- and 17-year-olds as adults, locks up more
  youth in adult prison than any other state.
• After Legislation passed to raise the age of
  juvenile court jurisdiction to 18 in 2010.
• Visit www.raisetheagect.org

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Overview

• Connecticut is one of only 3 states that tries
  all 16 and 17 year olds as adults regardless of
  the crime or charges.
• Connecticut locks up more children in adult
  prisons that any other state in the nation.
• Nearly 8,000 youth in Connecticut enter the adult
  court system every year.
• 96 of arrests are for non-violent offenses
• Children are treated as adults and are not given
  age appropriate services, given limited education
  opportunities and are stigmatized with adult
  criminal convictions for a lifetime.

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Raise the Age Campaign

• Impetus for change was the tragic suicide of
  David Burgos in 2005. He was being held in an
  adult facility on a probation violation. The
  reminder of the harmful effects of trying youth
  in the adult system renewed the states interest
  in changing the law.

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Raise the Age Campaign

• As the RTA campaign gained momentum, a growing
  number of policymakers were ready to support the
  change.
• In 2006, after Davids suicide the General
  Assembly mandated the formation of the Juvenile
  Jurisdiction Planning and Implementation
  Committee (JJPIC)
• JJPIC was comprised of key stakeholders

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Raise the Age Implementation

• The combined efforts of legislators, state
  agencies, judicial officers, advocacy and
  grassroots organizations, and parents and family
  members led the Connecticut state legislature to
  unanimously pass the bill in June 2007 returning
  16- and 17-year-olds to juvenile court
  jurisdiction. The expansion will take effect
  starting January 1, 2010.
• To guarantee proper planning and implementation
  of the law, a new committee, the Juvenile Justice
  Policy and Operations Coordinating Council
  (JJPOCC), has already begun helping Connecticut
  focus its resources on effective prevention
  programs and on ensuring that the systems and
  services are in place to rehabilitate youth who
  come into contact with the system.

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Winning the Battle and the War

• As the legislature, which overwhelmingly
  supported the reform, was wrapping up business,
  the secretary of the governors Office of Policy
  and Management raised questions about the cost of
  the reform.
• Mobilized all of our forces to get the governors
  signature.
• Chief Court Administrator William Lavery, a
  respected judge, made the case for Raise the Age
  legislation to the executive branch. Co-sponsor
  State Senator Toni Harp used her powerful
  position as Appropriations chair to champion the
  bill.
• An emergency email appeal went to supporters to
  contact the governors office and a press release
  went out, not to get a story published, but so
  that reporters would call the governors press
  office thus underlying the amount of public
  scrutiny they would face if the legislation did
  not get signed into law as expected.
• These strategies worked, and the governor signed
  the bill into law.

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Why was this successful?

• Coalition Building
• Grassroots Outreach
• Media
• Legislative Outreach

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Messaging

• Made issue appeal to Republican and Democratic
  policy makers.
• By emphasizing the public safety and cost-saving
  angles
• created a mainstream issue that appealed equally
  to both parties.
• Only three states put the age of adulthood at 16,
  making Connecticuts policy radical, suggesting
  a move to the mainstream

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Building Coalitions

• The JJPIC met biweekly over the course of the
  year.
• RTA campaign worked to involve interest groups
  from diverse communities throughout the state,
  including families of incarcerated youth.
• The collaboration between experts, researchers,
  practitioners and community members at the JJPIC
  meetings proved to be an essential component of
  the campaign.

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Forming Partnerships

• The Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance (CTJJA)
  had been working for years to build a coalition
  eager and able to reform the states juvenile
  justice system. By presenting itself as a
  resource rather than a watchdog, the Alliance was
  able to form partnerships with policy makers
  within the state government, many of whom had
  long harbored hope for a better system to deal
  with troubled young people.
• CTJJA also played a critical role in mobilizing
  parents and other advocacy groups whose voice had
  often not been heard in policy discussions.
  Parents had the opportunity to tell their stories
  in videos, in newspaper articles, and by
  testifying in front of the legislature.
• Parents were eager to tell their stories and
  needed only minimal support to shine publicly. By
  cooperating with existing parent organizations
  and faith groups, the Alliance was quickly able
  to build a strong and effective coalition.

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Swaying Votes

• Sister Rosemary McKenna was running a ministry
  for adult women, but daily she saw the effects of
  Connecticut's harsh policy placing kids in adult
  prisons.
• Bees in Your Bonnet, an advocacy organization
  also founded by the sisters, decided take on the
  Raise the Age issue.
• They sent postcards and email advisories to
  their legislators and traveled to Hartford to
  talk with their representatives face-to-face. The
  result was a landmark reform in Connecticut's
  juvenile justice system and a clear sense of
  empowerment for the mothers.

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Swaying Votes Continued

• Several parents whose children were affected by
  this policy were also engaged and were always
  willing to make calls, attend events and testify
  at public hearings and press conferences. They
  could always be seen in there orange t-shirts at
  the State Capitol.

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Grassroots Outreach

• Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliances Spark
  Plug campaign got the word out through
  postcards, incentives, emails, and calls to
  organize networks for support.

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Legislative Outreach

• Legislative Breakfasts were hosted all over the
  state to educate state representatives and
  invited affected parents and youth to share their
  stories.
• Educate the Legislature Days were held at least
  once a year.

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Grassroots Outreach

• The Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana helped
  recruit people to speak at numerous public film
  screenings across the state to identify the most
  pressing juvenile justice concerns.

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Engage Youth

• Californias Youth Force Coalition and Books Not
  Bars held a Not Down with the Lockdown rally
  and free concert in front of Oaklands City Hall,
  attended by over a thousand people.

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Engage Parents

• South Dakotas Parents Who Care Coalition members
  testified on behalf of juvenile justice reform in
  the state legislature. Despite having driven
  hours across the state, parents stayed until 200
  AM when the last bill was heard.

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What Can I DO?

• Talk with decision-makers at your school to
  educate them about these issues.
• Show Childhood Interrupted at your PTA meeting.
• Join us on Facebook or sign up for info at
  www.campaignforyouthjustice.org
• Start a letter writing/postcard campaign in your
  community to send to your legislators.

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Thank you!!