Six Sites Selected for 2026 Juvenile Probation Certificate Program

In June 2026, teams from six sites gath­ered in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. to learn about redesign­ing juve­nile pro­ba­tion cul­ture and prac­tice as part of the Trans­form­ing Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion Cer­tifi­cate Pro­gram. 

The week-long cer­tifi­cate pro­gram, offered by The Cen­ter for Youth Jus­tice at George­town Uni­ver­si­ty McCourt School of Pub­lic Pol­i­cy with sup­port from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, aids local juris­dic­tions in adopt­ing a safer, youth-cen­tered approach to juve­nile pro­ba­tion. The pro­gram offers inten­sive instruc­tion, dis­cus­sion and plan­ning sup­port to select­ed juris­dic­tions that are ready to fun­da­men­tal­ly redesign pro­ba­tion into a tar­get­ed, devel­op­ment-focused inter­ven­tion that pro­motes young people’s per­son­al growth and long-term success.

The six juris­dic­tions are:

• Augus­ta, Georgia 
• Hinds Coun­ty, Mississippi 
• Mem­phis and Shel­by Coun­ty, Tennessee 
• Metro Nashville and David­son Coun­ty, Tennessee 
• Sacra­men­to Coun­ty, California 
• San­ta Cruz Coun­ty, California

“This is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for juris­dic­tions to ful­ly shift the role of pro­ba­tion away from sur­veil­lance and com­pli­ance and toward pro­mot­ing per­son­al growth, pos­i­tive behav­ior change and long-term suc­cess for youth,” said Steve Bish­op, asso­ciate direc­tor of Pro­ba­tion and Sys­tem Trans­for­ma­tion in the Foundation’s Juve­nile Jus­tice Strat­e­gy Group.

Jamal Rowe, Sacramento’s Chief Pro­ba­tion Offi­cer and one of the par­tic­i­pants, is recep­tive to that kind of trans­for­ma­tion. ​“We have a respon­si­bil­i­ty to exam­ine our approach and be will­ing to change,” he said. ​“That shift chal­lenges us to move beyond sim­ply respond­ing to behav­ior and instead help young peo­ple iden­ti­fy path­ways to suc­cess and achieve mean­ing­ful goals.” 

Prac­ti­tion­ers, researchers, pol­i­cy­mak­ers and com­mu­ni­ty rep­re­sen­ta­tives pre­sent­ed on an array of top­ics, including:

• incor­po­rat­ing prac­tices for fair­ness and oppor­tu­ni­ty for all;
• youth, fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty part­ner­ship and empowerment;
• diver­sion as an off-ramp from the for­mal jus­tice system;
• deci­sion mak­ing about the length and inten­si­ty of pro­ba­tion terms;
• roles of pro­ba­tion offi­cers; and 
• lead­ing trans­for­ma­tion­al change.

Each team, capped at ten mem­bers, was required to have a chief pro­ba­tion offi­cer, judge and pros­e­cu­tor on its ros­ter. Dur­ing the appli­ca­tion process, sites were also asked to demonstrate:

• a com­mit­ment to com­pre­hen­sive pro­ba­tion transformation;
• a his­to­ry of effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion of juve­nile jus­tice reforms;
• a desire to imple­ment inno­v­a­tive prac­tices and be a nation­al leader in trans­form­ing youth justice;
• a his­to­ry of suc­cess­ful col­lab­o­ra­tion among agen­cies, pub­lic sys­tems and com­mu­ni­ty stake­hold­ers; and
• the orga­ni­za­tion­al and data capac­i­ty to sup­port pro­ba­tion transformation.

The pro­gram also requires each par­tic­i­pat­ing team to include a com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tion leader and a youth rep­re­sen­ta­tive. By bring­ing these voic­es to the plan­ning table along­side tra­di­tion­al deci­sion-mak­ers, teams ensure that sys­tem trans­for­ma­tion is dri­ven by authen­tic part­ner­ships and the guid­ing prin­ci­ple of ​“noth­ing about us with­out us.” These com­mu­ni­ty and youth lead­ers are there to help shape local goals and strategies.

Over the course of the pro­gram, George­town and Casey will pro­vide each team with tech­ni­cal assis­tance — vir­tu­al­ly and local­ly — as they devel­op a cap­stone project that iden­ti­fies a clear action for trans­form­ing juve­nile pro­ba­tion in their juris­dic­tion. Once the project is approved, par­tic­i­pants will earn an exec­u­tive cer­tifi­cate from George­town Uni­ver­si­ty and join CYJ’s net­work of more than 2,100 Fellows.

The team from Metro Nashville and David­son Coun­ty in Ten­nessee is plan­ning a cap­stone project inspired by their youth rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Cameron Carv­er. It’s based on his own expe­ri­ence as a teenag­er on pro­ba­tion. Café Momen­tum pro­vid­ed him and oth­er young peo­ple with sys­tem involve­ment with work readi­ness train­ing for restau­rants. Now a chef at age 22, Carv­er con­sid­ers work­force devel­op­ment to be ​“what saved [his] life.” The team’s idea is to offer job readi­ness pro­gram­ming to young peo­ple in deten­tion so ​“they are ready and focused with ideas of what they could do next to pro­vide for their fam­i­lies,” accord­ing to Carver.