Length of Stay Policy Academy Participants Announced

Jan 29, 2020 |

Teams from Bexar County, Texas; New York City, New York; and the states of Idaho, Oklahoma, and Maryland were selected to be part of Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators’ first-ever Length of Stay Policy Academy, a partnership with the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University. The teams were selected from a group of 18 other applicants who were all vying to be part of an important national discussion and change movement about youth’s time in post-adjudication facilities.

The five teams will convene in Washington, D.C., March 23-26, 2020, with subject matter experts to discuss factors that contribute to length of stay. Through a series of pre-academy activities, readings, and data collection reports, each team is expected to come prepared to evaluate their local factors, challenge their current thinking and practices, and begin work to develop action plans for improvement.

Team members include agency directors, facility superintendents, judicial officers, education leaders, treatment providers, and other partners key to influencing the factors that determine length of stay. The Policy Academy participant group will also come back together for two subsequent shorter meetings during the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021 to report on their progress and continue learning about best practices. The experiences of these teams will be used to help inform national policy discussions and practices about youths’ experiences in juvenile justice systems and ways to improve that experience and their outcomes.