84 Children: Follow-up and Proposed Recommendations

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84 Children Follow-up and Proposed
Recommendations

• June 26, 2002
• The Child Policy Initiative
• Georgia State University

2
Update on data collection

• Analysis of data on 26 detained children
  completed
• School records decided not to pursue
• Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and
  Addictive Diseases MHDDAD records
• Requested via e-mail 5/24
• Contacted by agency 6/13
• Received data 6/21
• Confidentiality issues

3
Detained vs. committed children

• Less serious offenses in the detained children
• Shorter stays in RYDCs for detained children

4
Mental illness

• Almost 2/3s (31) had psychiatric
  hospitalizations
• Additional 30 (36) received outpatient/
  community services
• Almost ¾s (74) had a diagnosis of mental illness

Hospitalized
Not hospitalized
5
Involvement with other agencies (n 84)
6
Current placement (n78)
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Movement within DJJ

• Average of 5 placement moves
• 79 (n66) had more than 1 placement
• 12 (n10) had 10 or more placements

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Proposed Recommendation 1

• Create therapeutic and secure placements
• Very few secure therapeutic placements exist for
  children who commit offenses that threaten the
  public safety. Children who sexually offended or
  committed arson most often had to wait long
  periods and go through multiple placements before
  receiving specialized treatment

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Proposed Recommendation 2

• Develop aftercare and wraparound services for
  children following psychiatric hospitalization
• Disproportionate numbers of the committed and
  detained children had histories of psychiatric
  hospitalization. A hospitaliz-ation at an early
  age should serve as a red flag event indicating
  that the child needs ongoing services to prevent
  future involvement with the juvenile justice
  system

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Proposed Recommendation 3

• Reduce caseworker caseloads
• A majority of the committed or detained children
  had histories with DFCS, Mental Health, or both.
  Caseworkers with caseloads that meet CWLA
  standards would be better able to determine
  childrens therapeutic needs at earlier points in
  childrens lives and then work to get the child
  placed appropriately.

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Proposed Recommendation 4

• Increase cross-agency communication
• 39 of the 84 children had histories with BOTH
  Mental Health and DFCS. We suspect that case
  plans were not developed in collaboration between
  the agencies. This represents lost opportunities
  for the child, missed and/or duplicative
  services, and a drain on scarce agency resources.

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Proposed Recommendation 5

• Develop and pilot programs to intervene
  proactively with children with multiple risk
  factors, including children of incarcerated
  parents
• Over half the 84 children (56) had a parent who
  was incarcerated, often for serious offenses.
  Model programs exist for preventive interventions
  with children who have this and other risk
  factors predictive of involvement in the juvenile
  justice system.

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Proposed Recommendation 6

• Evaluate outcomes for children involved with
  child-serving agencies
• We do not consistently track ultimate outcomes
  for children involved with the states
  child-serving agencies. In the absence of such
  data, we will be unable to determine which
  interventions are effective for which children.

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Proposed Recommendation 7

• Reintroduce SB 75 in 2003??