The Desktop Guide to Good Juvenile Probation Practice, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is a practice guide and resource library for the juvenile probation field. It offers recommendations for juvenile probation officers, judges and court staff. The guidance is organized by six themes: racial and ethnic equity in juvenile probation practice; diversion from the juvenile court system for youth engaging in normal adolescent behavior; effective case management; effective responses that contribute to positive behavior change in young people; limiting unnecessary detention; and organizational culture and development that promotes good juvenile probation practice.
To promote positive behavioral change in youth on probation, probation professionals must act in partnership with youths’ families and communities as well as other public systems and service providers and use strengths-based, trauma-responsive approaches based on adolescent development.
Youth of color are policed more heavily and arrested more than white youth and receive more severe punishments, including pretrial detention and formal court processing, rather than diversion from the juvenile justice system.
There should be as many roads out of the juvenile justice system as there are roads into it.
The adolescent brain is maturing through early adulthood.
Juvenile probation should be a focused intervention for youth who need it. The mission of juvenile probation is to foster youth’s personal growth, positive behavioral change and long-term success.
To promote positive behavioral change in youth on probation, probation professionals must partner with youths’ families and communities — as well as other public systems and service providers — and use strengths-based, trauma-responsive approaches based on adolescent development.
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