Montana Holds Second JDAI Conference

Montana’s sec­ond Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive con­fer­ence took place Octo­ber 17–21, 2011, as the juve­nile jus­tice track of the Mon­tana Crime Pre­ven­tion Con­fer­ence in Butte, Montana.

The con­fer­ence drew rep­re­sen­ta­tives from JDAI sites in Hill, Cas­cade, Yel­low­stone, and Mis­soula coun­ties. Mon­tana is also work­ing on estab­lish­ing anoth­er JDAI site with the Chippe­wa-Cree Tribe.

The con­fer­ence work­shops gave atten­dees a deep­er under­stand­ing of the pur­pose and use of deten­tion, and the role of judi­cial offi­cers in lead­ing JDAI, and pre­pared them for engag­ing stake­hold­ers in estab­lish­ing plans for dis­pro­por­tion­ate minor­i­ty con­tact (DMC) reduction.

Speak­ers includ­ed: Susan Alke­ma, spe­cial mas­ter, Bernalil­lo Coun­ty, New Mex­i­co; Jeanne Mas­ter­son, chief pro­ba­tion offi­cer, Bernalil­lo Coun­ty, New Mex­i­co; T.J. Bohl, assis­tant juve­nile court admin­is­tra­tor, Pierce Coun­ty, Wash­ing­ton; and Sonya Lit­tledeer-Evans, senior pro­ba­tion offi­cer, Jef­fer­son Coun­ty, Oregon.

Cil Robin­son, the state JDAI coor­di­na­tor, said she was pleased that the work­shops were well-attend­ed, and that eval­u­a­tions indi­cat­ed a high rat­ing for work­shop con­tent and presenters.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Cil Robin­son.