Delaware Improves Juvenile Justice System by Integrating Services

This month, the Comprehensive Strategy Group released a detailed report on the juvenile justice system in Delaware. Entitled “The Little Engine that Could,” the report focuses on Delaware’s impressive progress overhauling its treatment of youth offenders over the past four years despite the state’s limited resources. From the report:
“More specifically, the primary goal of the restructuring effort is to create a responsive rehabilitative system where youth receive supervision based on objective assessments of their risk to re-offend and the severity of their offense, and are also matched with services based on their needs. The reasonable expectation is that, by ensuring that youth at risk of further delinquency involvement receive needed services early on, [the state] will be able to reduce recidivism while building and promoting life skills and other protective factors which will increase youth success.”
Recognizing a Troubled System
About 10 years ago, Delaware officials noticed a troubling trend following House Bill 210’s adoption:

“The initial stimulus [for reform] was a backlash against House Bill (HB) 210, 'get tough' legislation enacted in 2003 that resulted in the transfer of a large number of juvenile offenders to the criminal justice system. This, in turn, inadvertently resulted in significant overcrowding of juvenile detention facilities while hearings to transfer many of these youth back to the Family Court were pending.”

A New Structure

To shift from an incarceration model to a rehabilitation model of juvenile justice, Delaware restructured its youth services department to be much more integrated. The Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families (DSCYF) became the umbrella group containing three service groups: the Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services (DYRS), the Division of Family Services (DFS) and the Division of Prevention and Behavioral Health Services (DPBHS).
The groupings below show DSCYF at the top, with the services listed from all three subunits. Following the DSCYF is the detailed breakout of the DYRS, DFS and DPBHS. (And yes, there will be an acronym quiz at the end of this blog post.)
Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families (DSCYF)
Services:

• Adoption
• Strengthening families and nurturing abused, neglected and abandoned children
• Providing children’s mental and behavioral health services
• Protecting the public from crimes committed by juveniles
• Holding these offenders accountable
• Preparing them to lead productive lives as law-abiding citizens

Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services (DYRS)
Services:

• Protecting the public from crimes committed by juveniles
• Holding these offenders accountable
• Preparing them to lead productive lives as law-abiding citizens

Division of Family Services (DFS)
Services:

• Adoption
• Strengthening families and nurturing abused, neglected and abandoned children

Division of Prevention and Behavioral Health Services (DPBHS)
Services:

• Providing children’s mental and behavioral health services

By organizing all of its services into a tightly woven infrastructure, Delaware noticed that it could provide much more individualized and rehabilitative services for at-risk youth and juvenile offenders, even though the DYRS alone services over 5,000 youth every year.
If you’re having trouble keeping all of Delaware’s acronyms and services straight in your head, you’re not alone. To help troubled youth and families navigate the options in the juvenile justice system, Delaware introduced Family Court Liaisons. From the report:
“DYRS Family Court Liaisons provide a central point of contact with families and between DSCYF service divisions and the Courts when a youth becomes involved with the juvenile justice system. The Family Court Liaison Unit was moved into DYRS in 2010...”

Positive Results
Delaware has already seen positive results since announcing its four-year action plan for the DYRS in 2009:

“One aspect of the DYRS reform is to assure [sic] that youth committed to Level V (Ferris School) [a lock-secure treatment facility] are youth who match risk and needs criteria: 1) identified as serious, violent and/or chronic repeat offenders, 2) pose a risk to themselves or others, and 3) require intensive rehabilitative treatment. Lower level offenders are no longer placed in these facilities; rather, these youth are served in less restrictive treatment placements.”
“Since [2008], the number of Level V placements has continued to decline and facility overcrowding is no longer a reality. The average Ferris School population in FY 2008 was 78 youth. The average population in March 2012 was 47 youth, a 40% reduction over just 4 years.”

Delaware has also shifted how it handles low to moderate risk youth by, “helping them to develop skills and connecting them to services in the community that can continue beyond their term of supervision.” This shift resulted in a 28% reduction in each probation officer’s average caseload volume between December 2008 and March 2012.
Looking Forward
Progress over the past several years of Delaware’s juvenile justice system has been promising. Youth are getting more holistic support and have a better chance today of rejoining their communities as positive members than they did previously. Looking forward, Delaware knows it still has gang issues to tackle, but remains optimistic that the new approach will continue to provide lasting benefits to its citizens.
 
 
 
 
 

David Backes joined the Prichard Communications team in mid-2012 as an Account Executive with a focus on social media and digital communications. David began his career as a website copywriter and quickly transitioned into the marketing and advertising side of online communications. Always striving to add to his digital toolbox, David now has several years’ experience in social media marketing; search engine optimization; marketing automation; web design and development; and online usability testing and analysis.