Practice Guides
You are in the Practice Guides section of the Casey Foundation Knowledge Center, which offers resources that are either published or funded by the Casey Foundation.
See also Our Work: Juvenile Justice, an overview of Casey's investment in this issue.
See all Juvenile Justice resources in the Knowledge Center.
Featured Publications
A Guide to Juvenile Detention Reform: Bernalillo County Mental Health Clinic Case Study
2013
Determining how to provide effective mental health treatment for youth involved in the juvenile justice system – and ensuring that it continues after they exit detention – is one of the most complex challenges facing this system. This report examines how one jurisdiction, Bernalillo County, New Mexico, has taken extraordinary steps to address this challenge by ensuring Medicaid eligibility for detained youth and establishing a licensed, free-standing community mental health clinic adjacent to it detention facility. The report also provides an overview of how the county became an active site in Casey’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative and details how their new mental health clinic is being operated and financed, and the lessons emerging from their innovative approach.
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Using Media Advocacy to Promote Detention Reform
2009
The fourth in a series of practice guides offers juvenile justice reformers the tools to effectively communicate with the media and the public to promote detention reform. The new media guide provides the tools for developing a well-timed and proactive media strategy, including tips and techniques for building relationships and pitching stories to reporters; strategies for developing compelling messages; instruction on how to approach an interview for radio, television, and print; and, how to respond to the media in the context of a crisis.
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A Guide to Juvenile Justice Reform: Making Detention Reform Work for Girls
2013
Serving as a practical, how-to guide for jurisdictions involved in Casey’s Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative and others, this report follows up on previous JDAI reports documenting the scope and nature of the different challenges and needs facing girls in the detention system. This guide offers clear and specific instructions for JDAI leaders on how to put that information into practice. After reviewing the characteristics and disparities in the system’s treatment of girls, the guide describes organizational steps necessary to create gender work groups, develop work plans, conduct gender-focused data analysis and put the information gained to practical use. Appendices provide a variety of tools and templates to support the work.
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State-Level Detention Reform: A Practice Guide for State Advisory Groups
2008
This is a “how-to” leadership guide designed for a highly-specialized and specific audience: State juvenile justice advisory group members (or “SAG” members) who advise and guide the implementation of the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) in the states, territories and District of Columbia. This guide highlights examples of leadership and the work of SAG members in key states that have been front-runners in advancing the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) via SAG leadership.
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Detention Reform: An Effective Public Safety Strategy
2007
This 4-page issue brief describes how Casey's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) helps juvenile justice officials reduce crime while reserving scarce public safety resources for more effective ways to supervise young people.
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A Practice Guide to Juvenile Detention Reform: Juvenile Detention Risk Assessment
2006
Detention risk screening is a fundamental strategy used to evaluate youth and determine the need for secure, locked confinement. The risk instruments developed at Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative sites have been effective in curbing subjective or inappropriate decisions as well as controlling the total admissions to secure detention. This is a practical guide for juvenile justice decision-makers and includes specific recommendations on how to design, test, and implement detention risk-screening instruments.
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Detention Facility Self-Assessment: A Practice Guide to Juvenile Detention Reform
2006
Because reducing overcrowding in detention can immediately improve conditions, Casey's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative sites establish “self-inspection” teams of local volunteers to monitor conditions of confinement. These self-inspection teams are trained in a rigorous methodology that carefully examines all aspects of facility policies, practices and programs. This practice guide provides instructions on conducting a secure detention facility self-inspection as well as comprehensive detention standards and an assessment instrument.
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