YAP

There’s good reason to celebrate justice system reform for young people. From the period of 2003-2013, the number of young people in the juvenile justice system has declined by 47 percent, and the number of youth in adult court has also declined.

Though the construct of mentoring is somewhat nebulous, everyone understands the concept of mentoring in youth work to mean a positive relationship between an adult and a youth. By and large, mentoring programs tend to start these relationships with younger children.

Tom Jeffers, a pioneer in the provision of community-based services to juvenile offenders, passed away today at the age of 75. Jeffers established Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), one of America’s first organizations dedicated to community-based interventions for delinquent youth, in 1975.

We stand in solidarity with Michael Brown and his family and their supporters in Ferguson and across the nation. Michael Brown’s fate – killed by a police officer and denied justice – is yet another example that black and brown children are not always protected by our nation’s laws and that the justice system works differently for different people.

Youth Services Insider was on hand for this week’s Congressional briefing on community-based strategies, hosted jointly by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) and the Harrisburg, Penn.-based Youth Advocate Programs.

Here are two stunning revelations about juvenile justice programs that have been made in recent years. 2009: The major Pathways to Desistance study research suggests that where a juvenile was placed for rehabilitation – community, residential or secure settings – was not predictive of whether he or she continued to offend.

by Carla Benway A stay-at-home mother of seven children died in a Berks County jail this week. The cause of Eileen DiNino’s death is unknown. The reason for her incarceration is.

Note: This story was updated on March 11 This winter, an intriguing development in national juvenile justice advocacy was made known in Harrisburg, Penn. The board of Youth Advocate Program (YAP), a national provider of alternatives to incarceration since 1976, officially launched its Policy & Advocacy Center, a top-down shop that will be headquartered in Washington, D.C.