Goals and Objectives
Recognizing the need to measure and better understand what works to keep youths on the path to successful adulthood when involved in the juvenile justice system, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) launched the Juvenile Reentry Measurement Standards project in October 2015. The project’s goal is to provide the field with a set of national standards and outcome measures aligned with adolescent development research that monitor the effectiveness of reentry services and promote practices that result in positive youth outcomes.
OJJDP selected the Performance-based Standards Learning Institute (PbS), the developers of the successful PbS standards and continuous improvement model for facilities and residential programs, to lead the project. PbS and its partners, the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators (CJCA) and the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) are combining their expertise to develop a set of national measurement standards grounded in research and existing reentry best practices provided from the time a youth is confined through transition and post-release supervision.The standards will establish the highest expectations for the delivery of reentry services and will be monitored by outcome measures reflecting the impacts on youths, families and communities. The final product for OJJDP will guide the field to implement practices supported by research, implementation science and adolescent development.
Project Activities
The first 18 months of the project were spent conducting an extensive review of the reentry literature and research and a field scan of existing reentry services, practices, tools and positive youth outcome measures. Juvenile justice and reentry experts, practitioners and researchers were consulted to verify and contextualize the findings and help translate them into the first draft set of standards.
Based on updates through several months of field testing, the draft standards are organized by four guiding principles and seven practice and positive youth outcome domains:
Deliverables
PbS and its partners will develop a set of national standards and outcome measures aligned with adolescent development research that monitor the effectiveness of reentry services and promote practices that result in positive youth outcomes.
Publications
PbS has shared a series of documents with project updates and findings of the literature review and field scan.
Future Work
PbS was awarded a second reentry grant from OJJDP in 2018 to help agencies build the capacity to collect, report and analyze reentry data. Along with partners the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ), Council of State Governments (CSG) and the American Institutes for Research (AIR), PbS will spend the next three years completing the following objectives:
1. Develop training opportunities for multiagency, multidisciplinary teams composed of key stakeholders who are involved in the collection, sharing and use of data related to the reentry process at the state and/or local level.
2. Provide technical assistance at the state and local levels to implement effective strategies for cross-agency collaborations in datasharing and measuring reentry services and outcomes, including best practices for measuring reoffending.
3. Develop and widely disseminate documents, tools and other resources in a variety of media to promote the data improvement recommendations.
4. Promote ongoing coordination with OJJDP, the National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC) and site teams, including any research and evaluation partners.
Additional partners will join in year two to provide further training opportunities: American Probation and Parole Association (APPA), Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) and Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators (CJCA).
For more information please email: reentry@pbstandards.org.
