Models for Change

Models for Change, an initiative of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is an effort to create successful and replicable models of juvenile justice system reform through targeted investments in key states. With substantial long-term funding and support from the Foundation, Models for Change seeks to accelerate progress toward a more rational, fair, effective, and developmentally appropriate juvenile justice system. Models for Change partners with selected states -- Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana, and Washington -- to advance reforms that effectively hold young people accountable for their actions, provide for their rehabilitation, protect them from harm, increase their life chances, and manage the risk they pose to themselves and to public safety.

Jurisdictions involved in Models for Change work on an array of target issues, including Aftercare, Mental Health-Juvenile Justice Partnerships, Community-Based Alternatives to Incarceration, Developmentally Appropriate Age of Juvenile Court Jurisdiction, and Evidence-Based Practices. Reduction of racial and ethnic disparities, also known as Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC), is a target issue in each of the Models for Change states.

Models for Change involves lead entities in each state, state and local partner agencies, a Technical Resource Center, and a National Resource Bank that includes CCLP and many other nationally recognized juvenile justice organizations.

CCLP leads efforts to reduce Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) with the juvenile justice system in the four Models for Change states. CCLP staff work in Allegheny, Berks, and Philadelphia counties in Pennsylvania, on statewide policy in Illinois, in Jefferson and Rapides parishes in Louisiana, and in Benton-Franklin and Pierce counties in Washington.

In Models for Change sites, CCLP staff:

• support the development of stakeholder collaboratives that can promote and oversee reforms impacting racial and ethnic disparities;
• conduct qualitative research and process mapping to understand case processing, system service delivery, and how decisions are made in the local juvenile justice system;
• conduct quantitative research by assisting local stakeholders to collect DMC data and conducting detailed file reviews;
• recommend interventions, using the qualitative and quantitative research, to reduce overrepresentation and entry and penetration of youth of color in the juvenile justice system, with a particular focus on implementing tools to promote uniform decision making, reducing unnecessary incarceration, promoting use of evidence-based treatment in children’s own communities, and increasing alternatives to detention and out of home placement; and
• monitor implementation of interventions and provide feedback and consultation to site stakeholders and the community.

These projects focus in part on collecting accurate data and developing effective interventions for Hispanic/Latino youth, who have historically been significantly undercounted in the juvenile justice system. CCLP works closely with the National Council of La Raza and other partners in the Latino Juvenile Justice Network on this aspect of Models for Change.