We know that young offenders are different from adults and that incarcerating them perpetuates cycles of trauma and inequality that do us all more harm than good. As Congress considers pending juvenile justice reforms, such as the landmark Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), it’s worth reviewing the role that basic federal protections and effective community-based interventions play every day in improving young lives and keeping our communities safe.
Enacted in 1974, the JJDPA created the first federal-state partnership to address juvenile delinquency in the United States. Recognizing that incarceration is a traumatic experience for everyone, especially young people, the JJDPA established a set of core national protections to minimize detainment and dangerous exposure to adult inmates for troubled youth who came into contact with the justice system.
In 2002, those safeguards were strengthened and expanded to address racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. In order to receive federal juvenile justice funds, the JJDPA required states to address disproportionate minority contact (DMC) at every level of the system — referring to the disproportionately high numbers of minority youth who are arrested, charged and convicted compared to their white peers.
[For more of this story, written by Evan Elkin, go to http://jjie.org/creating-a-mor...stice-system/150442/]
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