Using Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Advance Juvenile Justice Reform: Experiences in 10 Communities

• Date: 01 May 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/08874034211047895
• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/08874034211047895

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2022, Vol. 33(4) 429 –452

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/08874034211047895

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Article

Using Multidisciplinary

Partnerships to Advance

Juvenile Justice Reform:

Experiences in 10

Communities

Todd Honeycutt1, Leah Sakala2, Janine Zweig2,

Megan Hague Angus1, and Sino Esthappan2

Abstract

The Annie E. Casey Foundation created its national deep-end initiative to support

local jurisdictions to develop and implement practices, policies, and programs that

prevent youth involved in the juvenile justice system—especially for youth of color—

from being sent to out-of-home placements. This article presents findings about

the role that partnerships played across 10 communities in the initiative, leveraging

data collected through interviews and a web-based stakeholder survey. As part of

the deep-end initiative, stakeholders developed partnerships with multiple entities,

though they reported partnering with community organizations, youth, and families

less than with juvenile justice agencies. Family engagement emerged broadly and

consistently as a priority, but stakeholders infrequently mentioned youth engagement.

Sites with more collaboration typically had stronger implementation, suggesting

that successful collaboration goes hand in hand with implementing broader reform

activities. Developing diverse partnerships to engage in juvenile justice reform is an

achievable goal that can advance reform efforts.

Keywords

juvenile justice, collaboration, partnerships, reform

1Mathematica, Princeton, NJ, USA

2Urban Institute, Washington, DC, USA

Corresponding Author:

Todd Honeycutt, Mathematica, P.O. Box 2393, Princeton, NJ 08543-2393, USA.

Email: thoneycutt@mathematica-mpr.com

1047895CJPXXX10.1177/08874034211047895Criminal Justice Policy ReviewHoneycutt et al.

research-article2021

430 Criminal Justice Policy Review 33(4)

The Annie E. Casey Foundation (the Foundation) created its national deep-end initia-

tive to prevent youth involved in the juvenile justice system, particularly those of

color, from being sent to out-of-home placements. In supporting local jurisdictions to

develop and implement practices, policies, and programs to address that goal, the

Foundation required each participating community to assemble a multidisciplinary

partnership including a variety of stakeholders, such as staff from courts, youth proba-

tion departments, community-based service organizations, organizations representing

community members, detention facilities, and law enforcement, along with youth and

families.

This article shares findings from a 5-year developmental process evaluation of the

Foundation’s deep-end initiative. We document the partnerships local jurisdictions

established among juvenile justice agencies, community organizations, and youth and

families to build and execute the initiative. Leveraging data collected through in-per-

son and telephone qualitative interviews and a web-based stakeholder survey, we pres-

ent findings across 10 communities (referred to as sites) that participated in the reform

and its evaluation. We examined the structure and quality of their partnerships, their

achievements, and facilitators and challenges they encountered.

Partnerships are a key element of many formal juvenile justice reform models and

an essential component of best practices in youth justice. Thus, understanding what

makes them work well is critical for improving juvenile justice outcomes. Reform

models to reduce out-of-home placement for youth include both philanthropy-driven

approaches, such as the Foundation’s deep-end initiative or the MacArthur Foundation’s

Models for Change, and state- and locally driven reform efforts, such as Reasoned and

Equitable Community and Local Alternatives to the Incarceration of Minors

(RECLAIM) Ohio or New York’s Close to Home Initiative. Well-established best

practices in juvenile justice include collaborating with youth and families, building

strong partnerships with community service providers, and coordinating and collabo-

rating across multiple agencies that engage the same youth, as experienced by those

involved in both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Findings from the

evaluation of the deep-end initiative can inform policy and practice related to collab-

orative models as well as strategies to incorporate best practices on collaboration

across stakeholders, agencies, and sectors, particularly to keep youth from the deep

end of the justice system and in their communities.

As part of the deep-end initiative, stakeholders developed partnerships with multi-

ple, varied organizations and individuals, though they reported partnering with com-

munity organizations, youth, and families less than with juvenile justice agencies.

Sites with more collaboration typically had stronger implementation, suggesting that

successful collaboration goes hand in hand with implementing broader reform.

Stakeholders frequently mentioned concerns about partnerships, but identified part-

nerships with families as a success. The findings extend the literature on juvenile jus-

tice reform by offering a quantitative approach to assessing the quality of a partnership,

showing the association between partnership quality and other implementation mea-

sures, and documenting juvenile justice stakeholder views on the successes and chal-

lenges of their partnerships.