Juvenile Justice Task Force

one individual division. DHS's second recommendation amends the Child Welfare Reform Act to expand the provision of early intervention services to youth and their families involved in delinquent or ungovernable behavior. Ms. Williams indicated that such services have been offered in a pilot program for the past two years in the 4th District Juvenile Court.

     MOTION: Rep. Barth moved to endorse the concept of authorizing custody to be vested with DHS and to amend the Child Welfare Reform Act to expand the provision of early intervention services to youth and their families involved in delinquent or ungovernable behavior. He moved to adopt the legislation as Juvenile Justice Task Force bills for the1998 Session. The motion passed unanimously.

    Ms. Williams said the second phase of DHS's strategy includes piloting several alternative models of delivering traditional services to ungovernable youth. She briefed the task force on two model projects in the Northern Utah Youth Receiving Center and the Utah County Youth Receiving Center. She said the projects are moving forward and they hope to learn from the programs.

    Chair Hillyard acknowledged the positive input from Cache School District, indicating how pleased they were with the dialogue between the Juvenile Court and Youth Corrections and the increased funding in education. He said in the 1998 session he plans to highlight the changes that have occurred in public education since 1991 when the strategic plan was adopted.

    Ms. Williams said the third phase of DHS's juvenile justice initiative will involve a comprehensive review of existing statutory, structural, administrative, budgetary, and programmatic approaches which serve ungovernable and delinquent youth within the department. The desired result is a plan for fundamental reform, and any statutory, organizational, or budgetary changes needed to implement such plans will be submitted to the Governor and the 1999 Legislature for action.

    Sen. Hull suggested that the review include the issue of "Jurisdictional Age."

    Ms. Roz McGee, Utah Children, commended Ms. Williams on the recommendations, but noted a missing player to the group and suggested having a representative from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

3.    Reauthorization of Juvenile Justice Task Force Legislation

    Sen. Hillyard explained that this task force was authorized for two years to study juvenile justice issues and noted it would terminate in 1997. He indicated the need for continued study on fiscal and long term issues. He recommended that the Juvenile Justice Task Force be reauthorized for one year.

     MOTION: Sen. Tanner moved to endorse the legislation to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice Task Force for one year. The motion passed unanimously.

    Chair Hillyard asked the task force to review a memorandum that was distributed by Suecarol Robinson and Mike Phillips regarding "Juvenile Court Notification to the Schools."

    Sen. Hillyard turned the chair over to Rep. Chard.

4.    DYC Special Function Officers Legislation

    Mr. Gary Dalton, Director, Division of Youth Corrections, reviewed the draft legislation, "Division of Youth Corrections Special Function Officers," which provides for the utilization of special function officers by DYC. He recommended amending the bill.

     MOTION: Rep. Haymond moved to amend the bill as follows: on page 3, line 11 after "policy," insert "investigate cases" and on page 3, line 12 after "Safety," insert "post certified law enforcement agencies." The motion passed unanimously.     

     MOTION: Rep. Haymond moved to adopt, as amended, the legislation, "Division of Youth Corrections Special Function Officers" as a task force bill. The motion passed unanimously.

    Chair Chard indicated he would like to sponsor the bill.    

5.    Follow-up on Sentencing Guidelines

    Mr. Ed McConkie, Director, Utah Sentencing Commission, distributed the "Juvenile Sentencing Guidelines Manual 1997," which is intended to assist in the implementation of the 1997 Juvenile Sentencing Guidelines. The manual contains the sentencing guidelines, the matrix format, the common aggravating and mitigating factors, accompanying instructions, and addendums that will help the recommending authority calculate the guideline's recommendation. He said the manual gives general guidance to the departments and the districts, allowing them to micro manage and adapt in particular jurisdictions. Training has started, the track ing process has begun, and they hope compliance rates will increase. He indicated he was pleased with the process.

    Mr. Michael R. Phillips, Deputy Juvenile Court Administrator, distributed two handouts, "The Plan for Implementing the Probation Portion of Utah's Juvenile Sentencing Guidelines" and "Utah Juvenile Court-State Supervision Program as of November 1997." He reviewed the state supervision funding and briefed the task force on the programs available in the districts. He said they have expanded mental health services in several areas, along with expanding the

community service work crews. He said they have been issuing contracts with several private providers and pointed out that approximately 40 to 50 percent of the funding for state supervision will be spent in the private sector. There are approximately 800 youth that will qualify in the state supervision category of the sentencing guidelines.

    Mr. Gary Dalton, Director, Division of Youth Corrections, indicated being disappointed in the amount of programs currently available, but not disappointed in the efforts the staff has made. He expressed concern with the difficulty DYC has with zoning and planning in communities. He indicated receiving additional youth at the Genesis Work Center and placing them in out-of-home placements. He also informed the task force that all the Observation and Assessment funding that DYC received is in place. He reported having 22 slots in Salt Lake County and an additional eight slots at the current Observation and Assessment Center in Ogden. Mr. Dalton pointed out that 90 percent of DYC's funding for these programs will be spent in the private sector.

6.    Glen Mills Schools

    Mr. Chris Corsbie, Admissions Coordinator, distributed a handout, "Glen Mills Schools," along with a booklet that described the school and the educational services available to youth. He presented a video of the campus for the task force to view. He said Glen Mills Schools is the oldest residential school for court referred young men in the country. He said Glen Mills has been used many times as an alternative to adult lockup. They are currently increasing their capacity to 1,000 beds, and reported having 954 students enrolled, with 20 youth from Utah and youth from twenty-six states and various countries.

    Mr. Corsbie focused on admissions to the school, student services, academic opportunities, vocational education, and athletic and recreation programs. He said Glen Mills Schools accepts two basic mandates for students: 1) change behavior from antisocial to pro- social; and 2) develop life skills that will help sustain this change. He said they prefer to take youth who are 15 to18 years old and motivated to improve. The average length of stay at Glen Mills is 14 months. They have 15 vocational programs that range from computer programing to architectural drafting, and many of the students go on to vocational technical schools after discharge. He pointed out that sixty days prior to the youth's discharge, they are placed in a career development program that helps find job opportunities for when they return home.

    Mr. Dalton commented that Glen Mills Schools is a valuable resource for Utah and that he would like to use them more. He asked the task force to consider funding additional Glen Mills Schools slots for out-of-state placements. He indicated DYC could use as many as 100 out- of-state slots, which would save on building costs.

    MOTION: Judge Valdez moved to recommend that additional funds be allocated to support more out-of-state placements and to send this recommendation to the Executive Appropriations Committee and the Governor's office. The motion passed unanimously with Rep. Barth absent for the vote.

    Sen. Hull recognized the need for probationary schools in the state in which one could charter and receive 100 percent of the Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU). He noted that the Charter Schools Task Force would probably have legislation to address this issue.

7.    Aftercare

    Mr. Gary Dalton, Director, Division of Youth Corrections, said most systems that have high recidivism rates do not have sufficient aftercare services. Mr. Dalton recognized David Altschuler and Troy Armstrong who have been studying this issue and reviewed their report entitled "Intensive Community Based After Care Programs." Mr. Dalton said they interviewed more than 5,000 young parolees in different states and found that the theory-driven, risk- assessment oriented programs are successful, suppressing recidivism considerably. He said they found that transition is not something that should occur upon a youth's release from a secured facility; transition should begin the day the youth walks into the facility.

    Mr. Dalton said that Mr. Altschuler recommends pre-release planning during incarceration. Mr. Dalton suggested that DYC be tasked with creating and adopting a risk- assessment tool that determines the level of supervision a youth needs to be used state wide for parolees. He indicated that parole case loads should allow for intensive supervision and should be augmented with tracking services and electronic monitoring. There should be regular use of urinalysis and breath tests to make sure the youth are meeting the conditions of parole.

    DYC recommended a place like a Day/Night reporting center or half-way house where youth can come when they are on the edge of violating their parole, and where they are held when they commit technical violations. He said currently there is no choice but to return the youth violating parole to a high cost secure facility and revoke their parole. Mr. Dalton pointed out that with these additional programs, there would be a true aftercare transition program in the state.

    Judge Valdez said the aftercare placement is only going to be successful if there is some work done in the families; otherwise, the youth will return finding nothing has changed in the home environment.

    Ms. Roz McGee, Executive Director, Utah Children, distributed a letter to each member of the task force with recommendations regarding Utah's juvenile justice system.

8.    Safe Schools vs Unsafe Neighborhoods

    Ms. Patricia Bradley, Program Specialist, Utah State Office of Education, discussed the concern with expulsion and suspension patterns across the 40 school districts of the state, and the effects of the federal mandates for expulsion. She said that districts interpret the terms expulsion and suspension quite differently. She indicated there is no federal or state definition, except that an expulsion must be an action of a local board. She further explained that a number of Utah's largest districts define expulsion as the total elimination of service by the district. Therefore, because a school offers students some educational service, they report no expulsions. She believes the leading cause for both expulsions and suspensions is truancy. She noted, from the juvenile justice standpoint, these expelled students are potential problems.

    Ms. Bradley indicated that last year the Legislature appropriated $100,000 to help districts establish Truancy Centers to keep youth in school and off the streets. She informed the task force that Rep. Alexander's bill allows Truancy Centers to be used as an alternative placement for students who are out of school on Safe School Violations. She said, both academically and socially, this is a far better option than the two hours afforded by home and hospital schooling, or no service at all. Ms. Bradley reported that the State Office of Education is proposing an additional $300,000 building block for Truancy Centers this session. If funded, this could add an education component to as many as six centers.

    Ms. Carolyn Andersen, 3rd District Senior Probation Officer, Program Specialist, presented findings from a drug and alcohol use study that was recently completed on approximately 1,000 juvenile probationers in Utah. She distributed handouts, "Executive Summary" and "School and Employment" which focused on the questions about school attendance and school placement. She concluded that more than 50 percent of the youth on probation are not in school.

    Judge Valdez responded that part of the probation sentence requires youth to attend school. He said the problem is that no school will take the youth and they end up on home study. Then the youth are in violation of probation, and there is nothing that can be done to enforce the order because there is no jurisdiction over the school superintendent or principal.

    Rep. Arrington asked if there is any funding penalty to the school for students who are truant. Ms. Suecarol Robinson, Office of Education, responded that there has been a lot of discussion on average daily attendance which used to be the standard. She explained that a truant youth at school is counted absent. As long as they are not absent ten consecutive days the school can keep the WPU. She said a truant youth will be gone eight days then come back for two, be gone four days, and technically miss half the school year but the school will still get the WPU. She said there is not a great incentive for the schools to work with absenteeism and truancies.

She would like the truancy laws to address this issue and make it in the school's and parent's best interest to keep youth in school.
    
9.    Youth Reclamation Research Results

    Mr. Paul Curtis, Western Regional Director, Division of Child and Family Services, distributed a folder of preliminary status reports and information to the task force which indicated that they have been effective in serving the youth at home rather than in an out-of- home placement program.

    Mr. Brian Lindsay, Executive Director, Youth Reclamation, explained that the study used "The Youth Outcome Questionnaire" (YOQ), a standardized instrument devised by psychologists from Brigham Young University which is used to assess mental health needs as well as tracking progress in therapy. He reported that prior to beginning the program, the average score on the YOQ was 83.7 for a subgroup of the experimental group; forty-six is the cutoff indicating mental health difficulties. After 90 days of intervention through the Youth Reclamation project, the average score of this subgroup dropped 50 points. They attribute the significant drop to primarily one thing, the fact that the intervention is home based and family focused.

    Mr. Lindsay emphasized that lasting changes take place in the home, not in the institutions. This program gives the child back to his parents and helps the parents solve the problems. It provides early intervention into the lives and families of the participating juveniles and keeps them from further involvement in the juvenile court. He recommended focusing not only on early intervention but also on returning youth to a functional home where parents have been involved.

10.    Serious Youth Offender

    Ms. Camille Anthony, Director, Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice (CCJJ), distributed a handout, "Serious Youth Offender Presentation," and explained that 77 percent of youth transferred had an information filed, while 19 percent had a petition filed. Ms. Anthony said in every case where a juvenile qualifies as a serious youth offender, there should be an information filed. She said this information was an anomaly to CCJJ and thought it was a training issue and not a need for a change in the law. She further explained that 18 percent of those retained had an information filed, while 82 percent had a petition filed. She said that CCJJ is going to look at why this is happening.

    Ms. Anthony pointed out that 91 percent of the juveniles qualifying with a felony charge after a secure placement were transferred, while 9 percent were retained. She said 100 percent should be transferred under the law, which does not give discretion to the judge to retain those

youth. Also, she noted that 62 percent of the juveniles qualifying with one of the "Ten Deadly Sins" were transferred while 38 were retained. She said the defense bar has been concerned that they cannot meet the three criteria for retention; thirty-eight percent is higher than they ever anticipated retaining.

    Mr. Mike Haddon, Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, reported that 45 juveniles received a prison sentence which is 62 percent, and 28 juveniles received a probation sentence which is 38 percent. He further reported that all juveniles transferred with aggravated murder or murder received a prison sentence. Seventy-seven percent of the juveniles transferred with a felony charge after a secure facility placement received a prison sentence, while the remaining 23 percent received a probation sentence. Fifty-two percent of the juveniles transferred with one of the "Ten Deadly Sins" received a prison sentence, while the remaining 48 percent received a probation sentence.

11.    Adjournment -

    MOTION: Judge Valdez moved to adjourn the meeting at 4:08 p.m. The motion passed unanimously.