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

AuthorLeah Sakala,Janine Zweig,Sino Esthappan,Megan Hague Angus,Todd Honeycutt
DOI10.1177/08874034211047895
Published date01 May 2022
Date01 May 2022
https://doi.org/10.1177/08874034211047895
Criminal Justice Policy Review
2022, Vol. 33(4) 429 –452
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
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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.

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