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All JPOs have similar roles, but depending on where you work, your responsibilities may slightly change based on your department’s funding and services in your area.
These are just some examples of the roles that JPOs can take on.
In order to make the best disposition recommendations, adolescent brain development and the potential prevalence of trauma must be considered in order to recommend the right services for each youth. Collaboration with the court system, the youth and their families, and the community will create pathways to effective services that will be strength-based. These recommendations are important because this is the way to give your input to the judge, who will ultimately decide what happens to the youth.
Initial investigations must focus solely on facts needed to make an intake decision such as incident information, court history, harmed party reports, etc. in order to save your time and protect the youth’s privacy.
Youth courts rely on probation to investigate and assess cases referred to court to help inform appropriate dispositions. To protect the privacy of youths, it is vital that you focus the investigation on the information that is needed to make the intake decision and reserve more thorough investigation for predisposition investigations for cases where the youth admits to the charges or is adjudicated.
Predisposition investigations can occur after either a youth admits the charges or has been adjudicated. These investigations must focus on facts that are needed to inform disposition decisions. Although the direction and scope of an investigation will vary with the nature of the case and the resources and dispositional alternatives available, all predisposition investigations should be designed to shed light on three basic sets of issues:
What can help the youth build upon their strengths and adopt positive behaviors?
What efforts can system professionals take to help youth understand the gravity of their behavior (ripple effect), and how can the youth justice system mediate the harm done to other parties and the community?
What level of supervision is necessary in order to keep the community safe? Does the youth pose immediate and/or long-term risks to public safety? What is the best way to mediate risks to safety while not unnecessarily furthering a youth’s infiltration into the system, risking further trauma.
Assessing safety risks posed by a youth requires a comprehensive understanding of the behavior incident, their behavior history, and their social supports. You should try to identify the circumstances (where, when, how, etc.), motivations (why), and the youth’s behavior history. Using a validated risk assessment can help identify the likelihood that a youth will recidivate. You should help identify the least restrictive option available to mediate the risks. Options for diversion or approaches to help youth address needs will depend on your jurisdiction, but in general, most youth (Even moderate to high risk youth) will do better in the community—where they will have an opportunity to learn and practice prosocial ways of living.
Some states may specify factors that must be considered in disposition decision-making but there are general goals. Predisposition interviews include collecting basic documents, conducting interviews, and making additional contacts with people knowledgeable about the youth or the situation. They typically involve the following steps:
Review your case file beforehand so that you are familiar with the case and some details that may be relevant to the reason for your appearance in court. Meet with the child, family, and necessary service providers to ensure you have current and relevant information to share with the court.
You will be asked questions, but before answering, listen to the whole question.Answer only the question, without elaboration and without expressing opinions. You may express your opinion if asked but be sure to state it as such. Example: “It is my opinion that …”
You should answer questions you have knowledge of, if you do not know the answer, simply state that.Example: “I am unaware of that situation.” Or “I don’t know.” Don’t guess. Your testimony should be factual, but be thoughtful about your delivery. Use strength-based language when you can (focusing more on the strengths of the youth and the family rather than their shortcomings), without diluting truthfulness.
Refer to the judge as “Your Honor” or “Judge _____”.Remember to speak professionally by avoiding the use of jargon or slang. Keep your answers rather short.
Your department may have rules and guidelines governing the preparation and dissemination of pre-disposition reports. General Guidance (NAC Standards) includes:
This provides an opportunity for you to offer alternatives to more restrictive dispositions such as out of home placement. Your recommendations of the alternatives available using the information in parts one and two as support.
The goal of the disposition should be to provide the necessary supports for a youth to address their needs, build their strengths, and acquire the skills to build positive relationships, and improve cognitive/decision-making skills.
Conditions of probation are often presented in an intimidating way. By understanding that youth may not understand the “legalese” of the courtroom, make sure that conditions are presented to them in ways that they can fully understand. By creating a connection with youth, you can decide which conditions are appropriate for them on an individual basis and better explain your expectations.
Also, youth may not get it on the first try, give youth an opportunity to practice being compliant with their conditions without further court intervention. It may take youth a few tries to get it right.
Your work with a youth and their family is not about catching them violating a condition, but supporting them to help them achieve their goals.
You still have to hold them accountable when they do not follow conditions or are generally noncompliant, but this can be done without surveillance and severe sanctions. Relying on the use of incentives, graduated responses, and facilitating connection to positive people and activities can help youth want to comply, rather than being scared into compliance.
Recent recommendations support limiting the use of conditions of probation and instead support probation officers and youth developing expectations and goals through individualized case plans.[1]
However, if your jurisdiction does impose conditions of probation, it is important to recommend conditions that are:
The youth’s defense counsel should advocate for conditions that are fair and reasonable. If you’re having trouble with a youth struggling, reach out to their defender to try and collaborate and avoid a VOP. This can lead to bringing the case back to court or having an honest conversation with the client, but the youth and defender might find it helpful.
The National Juvenile Defenders Center (NJDC) released Promoting Positive Development: The Critical Need to Reform Youth Probation Orders (Fall 2016) to describe the concerns with standard conditions, explaining how they are often unfair and detrimental to the success of a youth. Unfair conditions include:
These conditions get in the way of the main goal of juvenile probation: positive youth development. By using the above conditions, youth probation officers are put into the role of law enforcement, which can be detrimental to their relationship with youth. It is important that youth think the probation process is legitimate and that they are being treated fairly. Without this understanding, there won’t be any youth buy-in to the process and their probation has an increased likelihood of being unsuccessful.[5]
There is guidance for judges to help a youth understand conditions of probation.[6] It is important to help the youth understand what each condition means and describe what compliance with the condition looks like. A youth’s comprehension of each condition is the first step to them complying. Research shows that often, conditions are not followed because youth have trouble understanding them. Be sure to:
Being involved in the juvenile justice system has some lasting consequences for youth. By keeping them out of the official system or expunging their records after completion of probation, these consequences can be mitigated, allowing youth to make mistakes without having to pay for it the rest of their lives.
The consequences that youth face from being involved in the youth justice system, known as collateral consequences, can follow them around throughout their entire lives and can make it difficult to go to school, get a job, keep housing, drive, maintain their reputation, and can affect other aspects of life.
Some actions that can lead to these consequences are delinquency adjudications, sharing of records, sex offense registration, GPS monitoring, and submitting a DNA sample that can make its way into national and state databases.[7]
JPOs can help mitigate these consequences by:[8]
“Pennsylvania requires DNA and fingerprinting of youths ‘adjudicated delinquent’ for most behaviors as of December 1st, including misdemeanors. It’s ridiculous that a kid can’t make a mistake. Why is there youth probation if that’s the case. It seems to go against evidence based practices. A lot of kids don’t even get it until they are impacted as an adult.”
“I have clients that are unable to apply for jobs as Corrections Officers and Firefighters since their juvenile record prevents them from eligibility. I received calls from military recruiters saying they will not accept applicants who even have informal cases. I have a friend who is a foster parent. She wanted to have her mother approved by child welfare as a child care provider. Her mother was a public school nurse for 40 years. Her approval was held up because she flagged due to a ‘sealed record.’ Clients who have addiction issues as adults have been denied entry into drug court due to aggravated assault charges as a youth. NJDC has one pagers about the harms of detention, even for short stays. I believe I sent a link to the Mulvey Pathways to Desistance research which basically said—most kids will just grow out of it—even without interventions.
Clients have been removed from school, prevented from playing sports, leading to depression. Clients have been removed from housing or pressured to move due to charges. In the Ken Burns documentary, Raymond Santana of the Central Park Five talks about how due to his convictions, he ended up in a cycle of the criminal justice system. The Kalief Browder story is impactful.”
—Juvenile Defender, New Jersey
“Here in New Jersey there is an actual possibility of criminal charges for violating confidentiality in juvenile delinquency matters. So, it isn’t dramatic to caution POs about being careful. Evaluations which are about providing the right services, like a drug evaluation, can be really problematic in the hands of a judge or prosecutor at a penalty phase. Sex offender evals might reveal additional acting out behavior leading to additional charges. Maybe by highlights the potential problems, we can highlight the need for confidentiality.”
—Juvenile Defender, New Jersey
…There should be as many roads out of the juvenile justice system, as there are roads in. Care should be taken to address fines and fees; judgements, remove fingerprints and photos from databases; apply to remove from sex offender registration; seal records; seal reports; restore driving privileges; remove warrants; return property; avoid forfeiture.”
—Juvenile Defender, New Jersey
In order to better understand youth’s written and “unofficial” rights, you should seek out training in adolescent brain development so that you can understand why they have these rights and to better understand other rights that youth should have, even if they’re not the law, that can foster strength-based attitudes.
Similar to adults, youth defendants have the right to know the charges against them, have legal representation, the right to cross-examine witnesses, and the right to not self-incriminate.
These same rights are not always guaranteed in dependency cases. Only 30 states require counsel for these youth.[9]
Though youth have similar rights as adults, there are some vital differences for court personnel, youth, and their families to be aware of before beginning court proceedings:
Because of the complexity of the youth court system and its differences from the adult system, attorneys for youths should have specific training and knowledge of the youth field, including training in adolescent brain development. High-quality counsel for youth at all stages of the delinquency proceedings process is imperative.[17]
Parents do not have any rights in youth court, but they are an important part of the process. Some jurisdictions require that a parent be present prior to questioning. Parents can be a tremendous support to youth defendants and can provide information to the judge and probation officers that can help to decide on the appropriate rehabilitative programming for that child.[18]
While providing services to youth, it is important to remember that youth should expect the following unofficial rights to be respected when receiving treatment and other services:[19]
Youth have a limited right to privacy during supervision. Even so, probation officers should work hard to make sure that records and information are not shared. Some ways to protect youths’ privacy are to:
Even though privacy for youth on probation is important, youth can still be GPS monitored and monitored on social media. Social media monitoring is often seen as an important investigative tool.[27] Even though youths’ right to privacy is limited, make sure to review your court’s confidentiality and media permission forms to ensure that this right to privacy/confidentiality is being met properly.
“We utilize Pre-File Diversion for young people that have no criminal history. It provides access to immediate services, no possibility of re-filing if they chose not take utilize the resources and minimizes criminal footprint in terms of records.”—Probation Administrator, Washington
Comprehensive connection that includes collaboration with other JPOs and systems and services in the community is important in all jurisdiction sizes. Rural jurisdictions will have special challenges that make collaboration even more of a necessity.
All JPOs have similar roles, but depending on where you work, your responsibilities may slightly change based on your department’s funding and services in your area.
If you live in a well-funded area, you may have an easier time connecting youth to services, which means you can focus on other aspects of your duties. For those that live in under-populated or under-resourced areas, a larger part of your job might include finding/developing different services by creative collaboration using the community and online resources because it might not already be at your fingertips. Many existing services will also have to be implemented differently based on location and population.
“One tip from a rural JPO is to ‘keep it local.’ In her community in rural Texas, for youth to be successful in adulthood they need to at least have a high school diploma and a driver’s license. With a lack of public transportation and employment opportunities these are especially imperative in her community. Other services are also provided, but knowing what basic things a youth needs can help you plan and prioritize services.”—JPO, rural Texas
If you are working in a jurisdiction with scarce access to treatment services there are a few steps that can help address the gaps.
Visit JDAIconnect where you can ask questions to other practitioners and search conversations based on topic. Using other JPOs that have been where you are can be a valuable resource.
“I feel that the new evidence based strategies have a better chance for being effective in larger counties. The lack of certain resources for small counties and few staff and clients make implementation challenging.”—Juvenile Probation Administrator, Pennsylvania
Current juvenile probation reform efforts promote changes that emphasize youth strengths, increased use of diversion for youth who do not require justice system interventions, and more effective interventions for those youth who will remain on probation caseloads. This guide summarizes information about transformed juvenile probation practice.
