Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania was the first state chosen to participate in the Models for Change initiative for its favorable reform climate, strong public-private partnerships, considerable consensus on juvenile justice, and demonstrated success in reforms.
A strong partnership between Models for Change and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee (JJDPC), Pennsylvania's State Advisory Group, focused on the key issues of: strengthening the system of aftercare services and support; reducing disproportionate minority contact; and improving the coordination of the mental health and juvenile justice systems.
Selected reform innovations
- Reducing detention of minority youth in Berks County through screening and diversion through the use of a more structured and objective approach to detention decision making. Read more about reducing racial and ethnic disparities in Pennsylvania.
- Improving the screening youth for mental health needs by helping more than a third of Pennsylvania counties to adopt the MAYSI-2, to flag youth with possible behavioral health problems at probation intake. Read more about Pennsylvania's collaborative apporach to juvenile justice and mental health.
- Establishing the Pennsylvania Academic and Career/Technical Training (PACTT) Alliance to improve the academic and career and technical training that delinquent youth receive while in residential placement, and in their home communities upon return. Read more about how PACTT helps delinquent youths gain academic and job skills.
- Sustaining reforms through partnership with the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers and Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission (JCJC) who committed to sustaining and enhancing the reforms accomplished during the Pennsylvania Models for Change initiative through the “Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Strategy” (JJSES). Read more about JJSES here.
Read Pennsylvania and MacArthur's Models for Change: The Story of a Successful Public-Private Partnership, for a full story of the innovative juvenile justice reform work in Pennsylvania.
Legacy updates
- Built a new generation of leadership that is sustaining reforms through partnership with the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers and Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission (JCJC) who committed to sustaining and enhancing the reforms accomplished during the Pennsylvania Models for Change initiative through the “Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Strategy” (JJSES). Read more about JJSES here.
- Worked with the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency’s Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee to fund enduring agents of reform, such as the Juvenile Defenders Association of Pennsylvania and county-based Evening Reporting Centers.
Publications and tools
Pennsylvania Models for Change work was coordinated by Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia-based public interest law firm that has been advancing the rights and well-being of children in jeopardy since 1975.
