Sierra Health Foundation

by David Muhammad Since the creation of the first juvenile court in Chicago in 1899, our juvenile justice system has failed to reach its ultimate goal of  treating and rehabilitating youth.

A few weeks ago, The Imprint began “Positive Youth Justice: Curbing Crime, Building Assets,” a series that imagines an entire continuum of juvenile justice services built on the positive youth development framework.

Allyson Bendell wasn’t always the most well behaved girl, but that didn’t make her a criminal either. In the world of group homes, however, where staff who are often undertrained and overwhelmed try to manage the severe behaviors that foster youth disproportionately exhibit, calling the police, for some, has become a go-to method for controlling kids.

It is not ordinary to see people lined up around the block to hear a panel discussion on juvenile justice. But on the evening of Jan. 14 in downtown Oakland, California, nearly 200 people gathered for a conversation about, as moderator Lateefah Simon of the Rosenberg Foundation put it, “how we end the brutal systems we’ve created.”

The Sierra Health Foundation has released a report evaluating the first year of the Positive Youth Justice Initiative (PYJI). To see the foundation’s full report, click here.

The California-based Center for Health Program Management, a program of the Sierra Health Foundation, announced $1.6 million in additional grants for its Positive Youth Justice Initiative. The new grants bring total investment in the initiative to $4.5 million.