Launched in the 1990s by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as a five-site demonstration project, the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) has steadily swept the country in recent years and is on track to become the standard of practice for how local justice systems nationwide handle the critical front end of the juvenile court process.…

The document describes the Family Treatment Unit, a demonstration program to provide a variety of family treatment services to status offenders (11 to 17 years old) and their families. The goals of the program are: (1) to provide family services to families of status offenders; (2) to maintain status offenders in their natural homes by…

This case study documents reform policies and practices for handling juveniles, and the development of complete monitoring of child welfare and juvenile facilities. Due to the work of citizen and child advocacy groups, ways have been developed in Pennsylvania to determine whether state and federal laws regarding institutionalized children are…

Juvenile crime and its immediate and long-term economic and human costs have become a national concern. Programs to prevent and reduce delinquency have developed across the country and one such program in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (which includes Pittsburgh) is described in this bulletin. The Allegheny program exemplifies a large-scale,…

The juvenile diversion program, Special Emphasis Memphis-Metro Youth Diversion Project, is described. The following areas of concern are addressed: (1) the juvenile justice system in Memphis prior to diversion; (2) project philosophy and community support-building efforts; and (3) implementation efforts therough the juvenile court, community…

These proceedings of the Subcommittee on Human Resources deal with the effectiveness of juvenile restitution programs and review the progress made by a number of such federally funded programs during the past 2 years. Testimony is presented that includes the experiences of four juvenile participants in restitution programs and several project…

A description and evaluation of the Baltimore Youth Advocate Project (YAP) is provided in this report. This project attempted to find out whether, to what extent, and with what results certain children could actually be diverted from the juvenile justice system. The project provided coaching and counseling services to pre-delinquent and…

The Adolescent Diversion Project, an alternative to court processing for juvenile offenders, employs intervention strategies of behavioral contracting and advocacy. Youth (N=73) were assigned to one of three conditions: (1) the control group receiving usual court treatment; (2) the family condition involving a trained undergraduate volunteer who…

This paper assesses current practices in the juvenile justice field against the backdrop of priorities set forth by Congress in the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974. Part 1 describes the legislative history and major provisions of the Act. The following sections present a concise review of current, general developments in…

This report proposes a restructuring of the statutory framework for dealing with PINS (persons in need of supervision) defined as children under 16 whom the court has determined to be incorrigible, ungovernable or habitually disobedient and beyond the lawful control of parents or other lawful authority. The proposal, as described in the…