ISSUE BRIEF
SEPTEMBER 2021
Beyond 2020: the next normal
COVID-19
YOUTH
RESEARCH. POLICY. PRACTICE. ADVOCACY.
CONTENTS PAGE 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PAGE 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
PAGE 7 INTRODUCTION
PAGE 15 2021 FORUM OPENING REMARKS Dr. Giza Lopes
PAGE 20 EDUCATION AS A PROTECTIVE INFLUENCE
PAGE 22 EDUCATION PANEL KEYNOTE ADDRESS Dr. Isaiah Pickens
PAGE 36 ASSESSING AND SUSTAINING COURT ADAPTATIONS
PAGE 38 COURTS PANEL KEYNOTE ADDRESS Chief Judge Janet DiFiore
PAGE 50 TRAUMA & HEALING THROUGH AN R.E.D. LENS
PAGE 52 TRAUMA & HEALING PANEL KEYNOTE ADDRESS Gary Younge
PAGE 64 MOVING FORWARD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This issue brief was prepared by the following NYS Youth Justice Institute staff: Tierney Nash, Avery Irons, Alysha Gagnon, Sasha Boroda, Brian Rainey, and Giza Lopes. The YJI would like to thank staff from the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), the NYS Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), the University at Albany, and the NYS Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children for their invaluable support in the planning and development of the Beyond 2020 expert advisory process and forum. We are also grateful to the NYS Juvenile Justice Advisory Group and to the YJI Executive Board members for their continued support for the Institute and this work. We express our many thanks to expert advisory members and forum participants: Dr. James Acker, Linnea Anderson, Quianna Bennett, Kimberly Berg, Kelli Caseman, Kristen Conklin, Jennifer Cox, Hon. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, Dr. LeConté Dill, Trista Deame, Lori DeCarlo, Hon. Craig Doran, Dr. Tammy Ellis-Robinson, Shalain Garcia, John Johnson, Dr. Lani Jones, Dr. Tracy Lachica Buenavista, Dr. Sarah Lageson, Hon. Edwina Mendelson, Saafir Northington, Thomas O’Neill, Amanda Oren, Dr. Isaiah Pickens, Charles Rice, Teresa ScanuHansen, Jason Seals, Dr. Melissa Sickmund, Walter Simpkins, Dr. Lynette Tannis, Dina Thompson, Dr. Joseph Tomassone, Kelly Ware, Jason Williams, and Gary Younge. The expertise of these individuals guided our reflections on and understanding of the last year as well as our pursuit of a more fair and just next normal. Finally, we thank Angelique McAlpine of Drawing Impact for shaping the take-away points from each presentation into works of art.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background and Introduction In March 2020, New York emerged as the first U.S. epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. As much of the field shifted to virtual platforms, the NYS Youth Justice Institute (YJI) considered ways it could support youth justice stakeholders in New York and nationally. The result was the forum “Are the Kids Alright? Research. Policy. Practice. Advocacy.” This June 2020 national cross-stakeholder conversation documented the pandemic’s holistic impacts on youth and families, especially those from historically marginalized communities. As of fall 2021, the pandemic continues, half the U.S. population is not fully vaccinated (including children under 12 and those who are hesitant to receive the vaccine), and the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is driving surges across the country resulting in another year of potential liminality and struggle for vulnerable children and families. The extent of the loss, trauma, and disruption over the duration of the pandemic remains both profound and immeasurable. Yet, this moment also offers the field the opportunity for reflection and growth on the individual, community, and system levels. To seize the potential in this moment, the YJI launched a Beyond 2020 collaborative conversation and planning process. Between March 2021 and May 2021, the YJI engaged three groups of experts in a series of advisory conversations, with each group assigned one of the following three topics: maintaining education as a protective factor for vulnerable youth, assessing and sustaining court adjustments, and understanding trauma and healing through a racial and ethnic disparities lens. In June 2021, the YJI hosted a forum, Beyond 2020: The Next Normal, COVID-19 and Youth with a continued focus on these three areas. The forum panels were comprised of policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and youth and family representatives. The recommendations and remarks presented through the rest of this document are the product of the expert advisory process and the forum’s keynote speeches and panel conversations. This issue brief is intended to serve as a resource for the field as we all plan responses to and navigate the pandemic’s longterm impacts on the communities we serve.
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Education as a Protective Influence The education advisory group’s discussions emphasized the following topics: the importance of returning to in-person instruction as a means of avoiding educational disparities; the need for strong relationship infrastructures between students, faculty, and staff; the necessity of balancing physical safety precautions, students’ psychological safety, and the impact of disrupted education services; the need for increased cultural focus and cultural humility in curricula; and the benefits of proactive student support and restorative practices.
Assessing and Sustaining Court Adaptations The court-focused advisory group’s discussions included the following the topics: the positive impacts (and still necessary refinements) resulting from changes such as time-certain scheduling and access to tele-services; the challenges faced by youth and families during the pivot to virtual platforms including a lack of necessary resources and a lack of technical knowledge needed to comfortably navigate virtual spaces; the procedural challenges for youth and stakeholders resulting from virtual proceedings; the need for youth and family engagement as the field designs and adopts a hybrid format and engages in research; and the potential benefits for of academia-court collaborations that would leverage resources and analytical capacity to assist practitioners in developing workable policy recommendations.
Trauma and Healing through an R.E.D. Lens The trauma and healing advisory group’s discussions focused on the following topics: the pandemic-related disruptions to support services, employment, education, and community connections; the evolution of healing as a support framework for youth and communities impacted by the justice system; the roles of systems in facilitating healing frameworks; the barriers and challenges to integrating healing within system frameworks; and the steps toward a healing model based on a foundational rethinking of the normative power structures between systems and communities.
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INTRODUCTION The New York State (NYS) Youth Justice Institute’s (YJI) mission is to build and strengthen the capacity of localities around the state to adopt evidence-informed youth justice practices. We carry out this mission by disseminating information, assisting with the assessment of existing youth justice programs, and conducting cutting-edge research to advance the science and practice of evidence-based initiatives. In March 2020, New York emerged as the first U.S. epicenter of the pandemic and, along with much of the nation, shut down and braced itself for a global emergency unprecedented in the modern era. The pandemic’s disparate impacts became clear almost immediately. The segments of the US population living in precarity-- those with jobs in the service sector, those who could not work from home, those with limited health care access, and those with housing and food insecurity—bore, and continue to bear, the pandemic’s brunt. In alignment with its mission, in June 2020, the YJI convened a national, crossstakeholder conversation to document the pandemic’s holistic impacts on youth and families, especially those from historically marginalized communities. Experts found that the public health safety restrictions resulted in reduced or temporarily halted access to a range of services for youth and families including shelters, food banks, housing, and behavioral health services. While educational systems and some services quickly transitioned to virtual environments, it was clear early on that this risked exacerbating the digital divide, where youth who had limited access to resources or technical knowledge faced insurmountable barriers to access. This technology divide was found to widen educational and vocational disparities for youth with disabilities, communities of color, rural communities, and low-income communities. Experts identified the potential for increased rates of infection within carceral settings: and many localities across the nation focused on reducing their youth detention and placement populations to curb the spread of the virus. This shift has indicated the potential for reduced future reliance on detention. Youth who remained in secure settings experienced severe educational displacement and were identified as being at heightened risk for mental health stress due to isolation practices in facilities and the disconnection from their families during the crisis.
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As of fall 2021, the pandemic continues, half the U.S. population is not fully vaccinated (including children under 12 and those who are hesitant to receive the vaccine), and the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is driving surges across the country resulting in another year of potential liminality and struggle for vulnerable children and families. The extent of the loss, trauma, and disruption over the duration of the pandemic remains both profound and immeasurable . Yet, this moment also offers the opportunity for reflection and growth on the individual, community, and system levels. This moment calls for us to see ourselves and the society we have built, its positives and negatives, and to rise to the opportunity to make ourselves better, more focused on fairness and justice, and supportive of the well-being and success of all members of
our society. In the youth justice context, the pandemic has necessitated radical readjustments from common practices. These have both served to emphasize how the justice system disproportionately impacts certain demographic groups while also providing some insight on how common practices can be changed to better support youth.
About our Process As described earlier, in June 2020 the YJI hosted a virtual forum to create a national, multi-stakeholder conversation on the pandemic’s impact on children, youth, and young adults--especially those from historically oppressed and marginalized communities. The YJI continues this work with a current focus on identifying the steps necessary for systems and communities to
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eliminate racial and ethnic disparities and better support youth and community wellbeing as the field transitions into the next normal. From March 2021 to May 2021, the YJI engaged three groups of experts in a series of advisory conversations, with each group assigned one of the following three topics: maintaining education as a protective factor for vulnerable youth, assessing and sustaining court adjustments, and understanding trauma and healing through a racial and ethnic disparities lens. Advisory group experts included a cross-section of stakeholders working within New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington, and West Virginia. During their meetings, the advisory groups were asked to discuss the pandemic’s current impacts on their fields; adaptations (and their impacts) within their fields; relevant research, policy, and practice questions; and recommendations and considerations for moving forward. In June 2021, the YJI hosted a forum, Beyond 2020: The Next Normal- COVID- 19 & Youth with a continued focus on these three areas. Each session featured a keynote speaker, followed by a moderated panel discussion of the current state of work in these areas, with a focus on next steps and recommendations. The panels were composed of policymakers, practitioners,
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researchers, and youth and family representatives. The recommendations and remarks presented through the rest of this document are the product of the expert group advisory process, the forum's keynote speeches, and the forum’s panel conversations. We intend for this document to serve as a resource for the field as we all plan responses to and navigate the pandemic’s long-term impacts on the communities we serve.
2020 in Review Throughout the Beyond 2020 expert group advisory process and forum, participants were asked to include in their deliberations and recommendations on the intersection of the COVID19 pandemic and the U.S.’s 500-year history of racial injustice and oppression of many identity groups. The resulting conversations illuminated rapidly shifting cultural realities,
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caused reconsideration of several cornerstone justice policy and practice assumptions, and made clear that there is no single policy or actor that will solve the nation’s justice system problems. Instead, the conversations highlighted that progress, if we choose to pursue it, will require individual and system-level honesty and self-awareness, changes in power structures, and a fundamental change in priorities. Many of the nation’s children’s services systems can claim deep, positive shifts over the past two decades. In New York State, the foster care population has dropped from 50,000 youth to 8,000 youth with a corresponding 70% drop in youth arrests.[1] For some well-known reformers around the country, such as Clayton County, Georgia Hon. Steven Teske, the reforms of the past two decades seemed as far as the field could go. During the YJI’s 2020 forum described in the introduction, he explained that he proved himself wrong during the pandemic and effectively emptied the Clayton Count juvenile detention facility. PAGE 11 | BEYOND 2020: COVID-19 & YOUTH
Surveys conducted in juvenile justice agencies within 30 states by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) identified an unprecedented drop in the nation’s youth detention population in 2020, indicating that Judge Teske’s experience had not been just a local anomaly. The jurisdictions reported a 24% decrease in juvenile detention between March 1, 2020, and April 1, 2020.[2] However, the details of this decrease demonstrate a continued disparate treatment for Black and Latinx youth as compared to their white peers. The AECF data found that during those first few months of the pandemic, detention rates fell relatively equally, approximately 30% across all racial groups. However, since May 2020 the decline in detention admission rates have primarily favored white youth. Contributing to the growing disparities is the fact that white youth have been released at a faster rate of 10% compared to 2% for Black youth and 3% for Latinx youth.[3] This information leaves the field to question whether many of these youth could have been diverted from detention and remained safely in their communities prior to the pandemic. The data and system adaptations also present research conditions that advisory member Dr. James Acker describes as a “natural experiment” that may fundamentally change the structure of the youth justice system. BOX A - BY THE NUMBERS Surveys conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in juvenile justice agencies within
30
U.S. states show an unprecedented drop in youth detention population in 2020.
Jurisdictions surveyed reported a
24% decrease in juvenile detention between March and April of that year. However, by May 2020, racial discrepancies had emerged, with Black youth released from detention
5x slower as compared to similarly detained white youth. Sources cited within text.
The true impact of the pandemic on youth and families in some fields is not readily quantifiable. In education, the onset of the pandemic necessitated the temporary (and in some places long-term) transition to virtual learning environments, the duration of which has been dependent on state regulations and the local outbreak of cases. While some schools were only all-virtual learning environments for several months in spring 2020, others faced (and continue to face) unpredictable closures and/or student quarantines depending on the fluctuation of cases within their counties. Districts and families report that many students became less engaged due to the impersonal format of virtual learning, lack of structure, lack of sufficient technology, and competing stressors caused by isolation.
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A few of the Forum speakers and expert group participants. From left to right: Dina Thompson, Kristen Conklin, Trista Deame, Shalain Garcia, Teresa ScanuHansen, Tammy Ellis-Robinson, Lori DeCarlo, Kelli Caseman, Lynette Tannis, Amanda Oren, Melissa Sickmund, James Acker, Edwina Mendelson, Craig Doran, Thomas O'Neill, Sarah Lageson, Linnea Anderson, Charles Rice, Walter Simpkins, Lani Jones, Saafir Northington, Jason Williams, Tracy Buenavista, Jason Seals, Joseph Tomassone and John Johnson.
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The children and community services fields have also experienced disrupted access to social support services. Those families who struggled to access services prior to the pandemic were further disconnected during the pandemic. An increase in usage of teleservices for medical and mental health services may have expanded access for some, but those with limited access to technology or internet may not have benefited from this transition. Further, many face privacy concerns when engaging in telehealth visits due to physical space constraints in their residence. While the pandemic itself has been a source of trauma, the ensuing disruption has simultaneously compounded past traumas for some youth and reduced access to services designed to help them manage their mental health and connect to their communities. Access to medical support and vaccine distribution has not been equitable and as advisory member Dina Thompson noted, financial support is insufficient. Families, she explained, are in mental, physical, and emotional crisis not just financial precarity. At this point, she argues, policy making at all levels is not focused on shifting individual families to the point of healing.
SOURCES [1] NYC Administration for Children’s Services. (February 14, 2020). “Administration for Childrens’ Services Announces Fewer than 8,000 Children in NYC’s Foster Care System – A Historic Low.” Available at: (https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/acs/pdf/PressRelea ses/2020/FosterCareCensusRelease.pdf); Caren Harp & David Muhlhausen. (June 2020). “Juvenile Justice Statistics, National Report Series Bulletin” Available at: (https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh176/files/ media/document/254499.pdf). [2] Annie E. Casey Foundation. (April 23, 2020). “At Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Dramatic and Rapid Reductions in Youth Detention.” Available at: (https://www.aecf.org/blog/at-onset-of-thecovid-19-pandemic-dramatic-and-rapidreductions-in-youth-de). [3] Annie E. Casey Foundation. (March 9, 2021). “Juvenile Justice is Smaller, but More Unequal, After First Year of COVID-19.” Available at: (https://www.aecf.org/blog/juvenile-justice-issmaller-but-more-unequal-after-first-year-ofcovid-19).
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OPENING REMARKS
Giza Lopes, PhD
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NYS Youth Justice Institute at the University at Albany
In opening the Beyond 2020 forum, Dr. Giza Lopes, the YJI’s Executive Director, welcomed and focused the national audience on the continued challenges facing youth and families and the urgent need for forward-looking and compassionate vision coupled with tangible actions. In Dr. Lopes’ words:
"As we emerge from our pandemic lives, what do we see in the future? Do we see a ‘next normal’ for our schools, teaching children in new ways, or regression and exclusion from lost education? Do we see a ‘better normal’ for our criminal legal system, which has found new ways to deliver justice, or old inequities replicating themselves? "
Exactly one year ago, as New York had become the American epicenter of the pandemic, in a virtual forum much like this one the YJI brought together researchers, policymakers, community representatives, practitioners, funders, and advocates to answer a fundamental question: “Are the kids all right?” And further, we asked, “Are ALL kids all right?”—as we centered our discussions on the pandemic’s disparate impacts on historically marginalized populations including youth of color, youth with behavioral health needs, LGBTQIA+ youth, youth with disabilities, and immigrant youth.
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MEET THE
SUMMER 2021
team
In New York now, a year later, we dare to begin seeing an end to this pandemic, marked by increased access to the vaccine and by revisions to social isolation policies. We also dare to believe that the age-old calls for racial justice that echoed loudly in 2020 may have begun to resonate -- or at least they did so in one courtroom in Minneapolis. All in all, we have reached what feels very much like a transitional, perhaps even transformative, moment. In moments like this, the Ancient Romans looked to the god Janus – who had one head looking forwards, and one head looking backwards – for guidance. Janus’ great power was to see both the past and the future, to see inward and outward, all at the same time. At moments of change, he took lessons from
what he saw before, and planned for tomorrow. As we emerge from our pandemic lives, what do we see in the future? Do we see a ‘next normal’ for our schools, teaching children in new ways, or regression and exclusion from lost education? Do we see a ‘better normal’ for our criminal legal system, which has found new ways to deliver justice, or old inequities replicating themselves? Do we see our youth whole, healthy in body and mind, at peace, civically engaged, ready and eager to learn, or do we see our children, our teens, our young adults contending with wounds exacerbated by the pandemic and caused by racism, ableism, and other ‘isms’ that are endemic in our health, education and justice systems?
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BRIAN RAINEY, YJI FELLOW TIERNEY NASH, YJI SCHOLAR SASHA BORODA, INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT ASSISTANT JENNY MUDD, YJI SCHOLAR MORGAN THOMAS, YJI SCHOLAR ALYSHA GAGNON, YJI FELLOW
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To prepare for this year’s Forum, we convened three groups of experts to help us prioritize what youth really need in this transitional moment, in the immediate future, and permanently. One focused on education, one on courts, and one on trauma and healing. We asked them: what questions should we be asking as we move beyond the pandemic? Who can help us look forward while looking backward? We are grateful to everyone who served on those panels. In a way, they were our ‘Janusses.’ Today’s event, which you are about to see, is certainly made better by their insights and hard work. The rest of the work is up to you, our audience. Your job today is to listen, and watch, ask questions, and learn from what
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TAWNEE CREWS, RESEARCH ASSISTANT MEGAN WILLOWS, RESEARCH ASSISTANT MOHAMMED IBRAHIM, YJI SCHOLAR TORI KNOCHE, PHD, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE AVERY IRONS, JD, ASSOCIATE FOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
others show you. We are scholars, educators, community-members, government officials, youth, and family representatives. We each have our own experiences of this pandemic and we all have thoughts about what can or should come next. But this event will work best if, like Janus, you look not only within yourself, but also outwards, to what others are showing you, if you reflect on what’s behind us and help us craft a path forward. Perhaps a place to start is to try and imagine the world as it is experienced right now by our young people. To those of us with kiddos at home, we may have seen first-hand the toll the pandemic has taken on our teens’ mental health; or the inevitable learning loss that came with the shift to online learning,
especially for our kids with disabilities. But we don’t need to reach for personal examples. Our young people’s trauma, their viewpoint, was, is, painfully public. A year and a week ago, at age 17, Darnella Frazier showed us a video of what she saw during this pandemic. Walking to the corner store with her little cousin, they witnessed the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by Derek Chauvin, a White police officer. And when Darnella shared that video, she showed us all something that we might not have seen otherwise or, worse, that we might have chosen not to see. As we look back to look forward, let us look within ourselves, but let us also always try to remember what others, what young people like Darnella, are showing us.
You can watch the 2020 and 2021 Forums at www.albany.edu/yji/covid-19-and-youth-forums
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Racial Equity & Youth Justice Microsite
YJI
The Racial Equity & Youth Justice Microsite offers youth and community justice partners a curated and living array of relevant national and YJI-developed racial justice resources and research. The selected tools (guides, toolkits, webinars, scholarly articles, etc.) are meant to provide concrete supports that empower, instruct, motivate, and inspire our work to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in youth justice systems. We invite you to contribute to this site by nominating resources for future inclusion. Email nominations to youthjustice@albany.edu.
eh ht t t tu uo ob ba a e er ro om m n nr ra ae eL L e
Youth Justice News Coverage Would you like to know how many youth justice news stories were published on race and ethnicity disparities in the last six months in your state? You can do so using this interactive dashboard! Every week, the New York State Youth Justice Institute's team curates stories from local, national, and international media outlets on diverse youth justice topics. All of the original news articles are available and you can read them in their entirety by following the links on this youth justice news dashboard.
Learn more about the NYS Youth Justice Institute at www.albany.edu/yji or make an appointment for a visit to our offices at the University at Albany, SUNY. We look forward to hearing from you!
Quianna Bennett
Mediation Matters
Kimberly Berg
Developmental Disabilities Planning Council
Tracy Lachica Buenavista
California State University Northridge
EDUCATION AS A
Kelli Caseman
Think Kids West Virginia
Lori DeCarlo
Randolph Academy
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Tammy Ellis-Robinson
SUNY Albany School of Education
Jason Seals
African American Studies Merritt College
PROTECTIVE INFLUENCE
Joe Tomassone
NYS Office of Children and Family Services
Jason Williams
Nassau County Youth Court
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KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Dr. Isaiah Pickens
PSYCHOLOGIST & FOUNDER iOpening Enterprises
Dr. Isaiah Pickens, Psychologist and Founder of iOpening Enterprises, emphasized the necessity of supporting the psychological safety of youth in this historical moment. Drawing extensively from his experience working with youth with justice
“[A]s much as we're trying to create physical safety for the young people have experienced trauma or for our families who've experienced trauma, if we don't support a sense of psychological safety, a belief that they can manage the stress that's happening around them or reach out to someone who can help them manage their stress, then they will always act like there's a threat, even outside of their conscious awareness”
system involvement, he discussed the role trauma plays in the formation of unhealthy coping patterns, as well as trauma’s complex impacts on the body and how youth see the world. He recommended that systems use this goal of establishing psychological safety as a guide when navigating racial and ethnic disparities as well as other systemic issues. This goal should be the first step toward engaging in rational dialogue and skill building that moves youth toward healthy coping skills.
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EDUCATION AS A PROTECTIVE INFLUENCE The pandemic has forced families to balance innumerable scenarios to meet work and education requirements, for example, working and supervising their children’s education, seeking childcare from elderly family members, relying on older siblings to supervise younger ones, and giving up work to care for their children as schools and childcare options closed. While virtual education options have enabled children to remain in school despite safety concerns, it has also created barriers for those without technology access, resources, or support services necessary to succeed in this environment. As of summer 2021, the confluence of the more transmissible Delta
P AGGEE 2 F3 O| UBRE Y|OJNODU2R0N2 0E:YC O V I D - 1 9 & Y O U T H PA
MAIN TOPICS DISCUSSED: Returning to in-person instruction, youth with disabilities, secure facilities, school-community partnerships, school transformation, restorative practices, school staff, relationship infrastructures, cultural humility
variant of the COVID-19 virus, the continued absence of a vaccine for children under 12, and more schools returning to in-person instruction in the fall, have emphasized the shift in virus risk targets from the elderly to younger children.
Beyond 2020 experts across disciplines spoke to the high-level of stress, burnout, and fatigue among caregivers, especially those who are caring for children who have developmental or learning disabilities. The participating experts identified key areas for further work, research, and innovation as education systems transition to providing inperson or hybrid services again. In navigating this next phase of the pandemic, they offered, leaders in education will have to balance competing physical safety precautions against concerns regarding delayed or disrupted education. The importance of returning to inperson instruction was emphasized as a means of avoiding educational disparities, as was the need for strong relationship infrastructures within schools between students, faculty, and staff. Experts reflected on the need for greater cultural humility in school curriculums moving forward, and the promotion of more equitable practices through greater emphasis on student support and restorative practices.
“[P]art of our journey to really be able to heal our young people is being able to understand the fundamental needs that we have as humans. And there's few other important needs than our need to feel safe.” -Dr. Isaiah Pickens Returning to In-Person Instruction Beyond 2020 expert advisors identified returning safely to quality, in-person instruction for all students as one of the most pressing issues in education.
Advisory participants Kimberly Berg of the Developmental Disabilities Planning Council and Randolph Academy Superintendent Lori DeCarlo asserted that the virtual format disproportionately impacted students who have learning and developmental disabilities, which has placed significant barriers to educational advancement and weakened the role of education as a protective factor. This is particularly relevant to consider within the context of youth justice, as reports have confirmed the disproportionate representation of youth with disabilities in secure facilities within the U.S. [1] Regular school attendance and specialized support can be a significant stabilizing influence in the lives of youth and opens opportunities for them to advance their educational progress, develop relationships with supportive mentors, and gain life skills that support independent living. Kelli Caseman, Executive Director of Think Kids in West Virginia, stressed that the return to in-person schooling presents an opportune time to bring community providers and services to the table. Students are returning to schools, and many will present new needs. It would be a mistake to assume that all teachers and families are aware of all the services available in their communities, she said, which limits the potential impact and distribution of these services. With vaccinations available for youth 12 and older and vaccinations in late stages of development for younger children, schools may be potential vaccination points. There may be more opportunities for teachers, students, and families to open lines of communication about their respective
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experiences in the virtual environment and their needs upon returning to brick-andmortar schools. As they considered the next steps in the education field, Beyond 2020 experts emphasized that the education system was not meeting the needs of all its students before the pandemic’s start. They spoke about the deeply entrenched systemic issues that became more glaring because of the pandemic and cautioned the field to guard against the potential use of virtual instruction to push students out of the in-person environment, especially as the virtual learning environment is of variable quality and can increase student disconnection. Dr. Tammy Ellis-Robinson, University at Albany Assistant Professor and Researcher of Special Education and Educational Psychology, noted that it is necessary to consider how to provide high-quality education not only to those students who were doing well prior to the
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pandemic, but those who have been underserved by their school system based on their ability, race, linguistic diversity, or gender. She challenged the field to consider how to reboot education in such a way that inclusivity is redefined as, “expansively considering inclusive outcomes for students so that all students have the opportunity to self-determine those outcomes.” Dr. Tracy Lachica Buenavista, an Education Scholar at California State UniversityNorthridge argued that “[T]he most effective way to return to schools is to actually fundamentally shift away from the way that schooling has been done.” She found that some of the policy changes parents and teachers had been pushing for, such as smaller class sizes and lower student-toteacher ratios, have been put into practice because of social distancing measures. While all communities need to acknowledge the collective trauma they have suffered,
this moment can also be used as an opportunity to deemphasize the “one-sized curriculum” guided by standardized testing in favor of a curriculum that’s more “student-centered and collaborative” which would allow students greater personal agency in their learning process. On this, Chair of Ethnic Studies at Merritt College Jason Seals added that student empowerment should extend beyond curriculum-based skills to include a focus on healing and building their capacity to be socially and politically engaged outside of the school environment. Building Relationship Infrastructures
"[T]he most effective way to return to Throughout the forum and the conversations schools is to actually fundamentally preceding it, there was a significant focus on shift away from the way that the impact of quality relationships (or lack schooling has been done." thereof) between students, faculty, and staff. Harvard Graduate School of Education -Tracy Lachica Buenavista Lecturer Dr. Lynette Tannis noted that as school systems and individual staff members worked to shift support tactics as the pandemic’s severity became clear, in all education settings it was evident which youth had established strong relationships within the school environment prior to the pandemic. These youth were able to leverage those relationships for support and this made a positive difference in their educational outcomes.
Lori DeCarlo explained the ways in which a years-long implementation of restorative practices in her school laid the foundation for a smoother transition in youth and family supports during the pandemic. Building these practices and participating in communityengaged restorative practices has been a continuous source of social and emotional support for staff. These connections between students, faculty, staff, and families can be understood as a relationship infrastructure, connecting those within the learning environment to one another. Districts with a strong relationship infrastructure were more adaptive, able to shift strategies more easily whether that be troubleshooting online education, delivering vital supplies to families, or identifying youth and families in need of tailored supports. Kelli Caseman noted that there is a circular relationship between ensuring that the basic needs of youth are met and fostering community: the basic needs of youth will not be met without relationships between families and communities.
"Stress and uncertainty during the pandemic really highlighted the essentiality of teachers and other education professionals, not only in education as an end game product for students. But as facilitators of the development growth discovery and arbiters of engagement." -Tammy Ellis-Robinson Dr. Buenavista emphasized the need for a community of care approach that actively engages and responds to the unique needs of youth and families within communities. She refers to her own experience working with undocumented families during the pandemic. PAGE 27 | BEYOND 2020: COVID-19 & YOUTH
As students’ parents lost their jobs, the students brought this information forward and then worked with faculty to co-lead the implementation of a mutual aid fund. In this way, youth were empowered to help their communities move a solution forward. The pandemic illustrated the difficulty in establishing these types of relationships in the middle of a crisis while also highlighting the critical supportive role they served where they were already established. This signals a need for greater development of relationship infrastructures and restorative practices within educational environments. Dr. Ellis-Robinson described the pandemic’s exacerbation of the reduced interest in entering the field of education and burnout for teachers currently working in the field. Instead of using ever- tightening national standards as a mechanism for punitive measures against teachers, she recommended focusing on a more holistic approach that prioritizes relationships rather than metrics, which may inspire teachers to better serve youth and creates a positive example for those motivated to become teachers themselves. She emphasized both increasing BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) educator representation while also ensuring that teachers are supported and free to design curriculums that support the goals of their students. Dr. Joseph Tomassone, the Associate Commissioner for Programs and Services at NYS OCFS, noted that educators must be aware of the tension between outcome goals and process goals, and that test-based assessments of learning are limited metrics of an individual’s educational attainment. He found that assessing learning
exclusively through the lens of testing was a limited view of an education, and one that does not necessarily foster a love of learning. Cultural Humility in School Curriculum Cultural humility emerged as a key discussion point in both the Beyond 2020 forums on education and court-based adaptations. The American Psychological Association defines cultural humility as a construct built of three factors: a lifelong commitment to selfevaluation and self-critique, a desire to fix power imbalances, and desiring to develop partnerships with other individuals and groups who advocate for others. [2] During the education panel, Professor Seals endorsed an educational approach that would lead to a greater understanding and acceptance of different cultures as well as the active inclusion of greater cultural diversity within curriculums. Both Professor Seals and Dr. Buenavista used their experiences as
ethnic studies educators to advocate for the right of students to have curriculums that are culturally responsive and shares the history of underrepresented students. In reflecting on traditional curriculums, Professor Seals referenced the compilation of essays Too Much Schooling, Too Little Education: A Paradox of Black Life in White Societies, saying that “[O]ften the settings where we send our children are facilitating them to think in a way that supports their own demise… school has often shaped an experience that helps black children specifically accept their subordinate status. It prepares them to be in that position in America.” [3] To undermine this tendency in education, he has made it a point in his own courses to offer a comprehensive history of the African experience that does not solely focus on the trauma of the transatlantic slave trade and onward, but on the experience of African peoples for the thousands of years
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that preceded the slave trade to celebrate these cultures and enable students to connect with their heritage. Further, he connects contemporary restorative practices to their roots and instilling a sense of worth and pride in his students from those backgrounds. Dr. Buenavista shared her experiences working with critical race theory as an educator. She described the misinformation surrounding critical race theory and clarified that it is a theoretical framework that can be used to guide us to ask the right questions about the impact of race and racism and begin to develop mechanisms to address these questions. As defined by the anthropologist Khiara Bridges in 2021, critical race theory is the recognition that race is a socially constructed concept, racism is a normal feature of society embedded in systems and institutions, this systemic racism is primarily responsible for racial inequality, and the lived experiences of people of color are relevant to scholarship. [4] Dr. Buenavista argued that while many people are now learning this theoretical framework through academic institutions, they stop short of applying these principles in practice. If educators approach reopening schools through a critical race theory lens, she argued, they would start with trying to determine how to best support the most vulnerable students rather than dealing with these cases as outliers.
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Refocusing from Punishment to Support Dr. Buenavista identified the traditional approach to education as one that is framed within the context of a “carceral society,” one that “centers itself on the idea of punishment, containment, and control.” In schools, this manifests itself in attempts to control behavior that is considered disruptive rather than working with the student to determine the underlying cause of the behavior. This approach addresses the symptoms, not the cause, and Dr. Buenavista found that in ignoring the basic needs of students, educators have been unintentionally setting up the conditions for trauma to “manifest and thrive” in schools.
"We engage carceral practices to deal with students. We don't work with students. We deal with students, right? And it's because we live in a carceral society, so everything we do from parenting, to resolving personal conflict with loved ones, to even working with students. It often centers on the idea of punishment, containment, control, right? And schools are absolutely no exception and so we also know that when basic needs aren't met, this is what sets up the conditions for trauma to manifest and thrive in schools, right?" -Tracy Lachica Buenavista In a recent report analyzing data for the 20152016 school year, the American Civil Liberties Union found that there were more than 27,000 sworn law enforcement personnel working as school resource officers throughout the country, with over 230,000
referrals to law enforcement, and 61,000 arrests in schools. During the same time period, the report noted that 1.7 million students attend schools with police but no counselors, 6 million students attend schools with police but no school psychologists, and 10 million students attend schools with police but no social workers. [5] These numbers suggest that a significant number of students are being directed to the justice system not through activities outside of school, but through the schools themselves. Award-winning psychologist and CEO of iOpening Enterprises Dr. Isaiah Pickens emphasized that schools must be equally concerned about students’ physical safety and as well as their sense of psychological safety. In reflecting on his experiences working with youth and training educators to assist youth who are responding to trauma, “Trauma is not an excuse for behavior, it’s an explanation for it.” In working with youth navigating their trauma, who may be acting out in ways that are counterproductive to the wellbeing of themselves and others, the cause of the behavior can be identified, and youth gain an opportunity to obtain closure or healing from the experience. Dr. Pickens described psychological safety as “...a [youth’s] belief that they can manage the stress that’s happening around them or reach out to someone who can help them manage their stress.” He referred to not only the involuntary physical responses someone might experience when they feel that they are in danger, such as stiff muscles or increased heart rate, and also the psychological responses such as racing thoughts on how to
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protect themselves from the threat. He stressed that regardless of how physically safe an individual might actually be, “If they don’t have a sense of psychological safety, they’ll always act like there’s a threat.” Understanding this concept helps to recenter the conversation away from how to control youth who may be experiencing these issues, to instead focus on how to help them reestablish a sense of safety so that they can engage in a rational, rather than reactive, manner. In the context of the school environment, Professor Seals asked for active acknowledgement of the ways “racism creates a certain type of experience and environment for students... our children are holding a lot of anxiety, a lot of pain, ideas of being dehumanized, and I think when you carry those things, and you compound them with everyday life stressors and your struggles in
school-you don't have the skill set to be able to engage in certain relationship dynamics, there’s going to be conflict.” In reflecting on his own experiences, Nassau County Youth Activist and Mentor, Jason Williams emphasized the need for compassion and understanding when engaging with students who may have experienced collective trauma, “As far as collective trauma goes, I think that the best way that anyone can really help students is by realizing that we’re all one and the same... Kids just want someplace to go... [to] talk to somebody. They just need to know that somebody cares about them.” He explained that the development of informal relationships with key leaders in the education system outside of the context of the school as a major protective factor. Simple social events such as bingo nights or park barbeques can make a significant impression on young people who may otherwise not feel comfortable approaching teachers or staff.
Restorative Practices in Context Professor Seals identified conflict as a normative experience and noted that many students have been harmed through criminalization or being pushed out of school because of conflict. Instead of these exclusionary responses, he envisions dialogues between students and authority figures "I think it's really important that if who pause before reacting, then question what the we're going to talk about our children, what they need, let's think about the child needs, and in so doing normalize conflict as whole child. So, I think there's a skill an opportunity for relationship building. Both the expert advisory groups on education and trauma and healing explored the role of restorative practices and restorative justice in school and community environments. Restorative justice is a body of practices which emphasize accountability and moderated active engagement between those PAGE 31 | BEYOND 2020: COVID-19 & YOUTH
part, that's important to think about. But I also think this space should be about healing and preparation for their social, political experience moving beyond that space what do our children want and need." - Jason Seals
who have caused harm and those who have been harmed. It has been used in response to a wide range of criminal offenses, when both parties are willing to engage with one another. This process emphasizes input from the individuals harmed by a crime to a significantly greater degree than traditional criminal justice approaches, and as a result produces an approach that may help all impacted by the crime heal from their experience. The approach may yield decreases in recidivism as well, with one study conducted on the federal level identifying a 26% reduction in recidivism through restorative justice practices. [6] Quianna Bennett, a Program Coordinator with Mediation Matters, explained that some stakeholders equate restorative justice with a lack of accountability or with disciplinary action. For her, this signals a need for greater understanding and modeling of the practices to illustrate that they go beyond a harm circle and are very much a proactive approach. She explained that exposing adults to restorative justice work through modeling may help to reduce skepticism and demonstrate the benefits of this work without demanding that these individuals be able to perfectly execute these practices with only limited training. Restorative justice encompasses a wide range of approaches that can empower students, families, and educational staff to acknowledge challenges and move forward in a proactive and inclusionary manner. This conversation is especially relevant considering the transitional period now facing the nation. Many young people who may have become disconnected or fallen behind during virtual learning are reintegrating into a structured, public learning environment. And the pandemicrelated trauma experiences of this generation of students will certainly impact behaviors in schools and communities. Beyond 2020 experts argued for proactivity in meeting students' needs and included in this proactivity creating spaces for productive responses to challenging behaviors that focus on supporting youth’s recovery as opposed to pushing them out of school environments or involving them in the justice system.
Removing Roadblocks Advisory group participants noted that the adjustments necessitated by the pandemic have removed barriers that have historically prevented systems from developing and implementing positive innovations. For example, technology limits in secure facilities around the country and security and privacy concerns prevented video calls between youth and their families. The urgent need and right of youth to maintain contact with their families when traditional visitation was impossible forced systems to find ways to guarantee free Zoom calls with families. As the service was implemented, stakeholders developed the practices and protocols necessary to ensure safety and security, discovering that it could be done. Dr. Ellis-Robinson discussed ways that schools were reducing administrative hurdles to provide students with vital services like text-to-speech
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services. She also noted that some schools were beginning to use resource sharing frameworks to benefit students across district lines. Expanding knowledge about and use of the sharing frameworks could open valuable resources to students in under-resourced rural and urban areas. As of the writing of this document, discussing education in the post-pandemic environment seems premature. The surging delta variant of the COVID-19 virus reminds us of the precarity of the moment and the continued risks to vulnerable children, families, and communities. However, this liminality does not preclude an evaluation of the efficacy of innovations and adaptations created in response to the public health crisis. When considering the many ways by which education systems have underserved historically marginalized groups; the onerous challenges ahead for educators, families, and students; and all that the pandemic has revealed about the holes in our society’s safety nets, there is no time to waste in the hard work of making a way forward. Learning Without Limitations As part of the Beyond 2020 process, advisory members were asked to list their “wildest dreams” for educational supports for youth without regard to cost, logistics, or political feasibility. Below is their list of responses. Access to specialized experts for every child, to meet the individualized learning needs of every child. Better support for youth in carceral settings to dream about their futures and tailor training programs for kids that are relevant to their aspirations. Incentivize young people with what they are most responsive to, such as paying young people to read and learn new subjects. Create spaces where adults learn alongside youth to move us beyond the limiting idea of an age-specific academic trajectory and expand the common preconceptions around learning. Ensure that every student is able to attend a small school where they are known and loved. Ensure seamless internet access, no matter how rural the community may be. Ensure that every student has access to digital learning devices, both in school and at home.
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We then asked the members to suggest first steps that could move the education and youth justice fields toward turning these dreams into realities. Release state-level guidance on the appropriate use of virtual learning to protect students from being pushed out of schools back into the virtual environment. Educators and system stakeholders maintaining the initiative to participate in impactful problem-solving after the pandemic. In-depth individualized learning plans developed by system stakeholders that include planning technology access alongside social and emotional learning components such as mentorship. An education plan that provides every young person with the tools and support for them to achieve success as they define it. Participating in student-specific goal setting, as defined by special education law and other mandates, elevating these processes as a basic right of all students.
SOURCES [1] Justice Policy Institute. (2007). The Dangers of Detention: The Impact of Incarcerating Youth in Detention and Other Secure Facilities. Available at: (https://www.aecf.org/resources/the-dangersof-detention).; Katherine Taylor. National Center for Special Education Research. (FY 2006-2016). A Summary of Research on Youth with Disabilities & the Juvenile Justice System. Available at: (https://ies.ed.gov/ncser/pdf/JuvenileJustice.pdf). [2] Amanda Waters and Lisa Asbill. (August 2013). “Reflections on Cultural Humililty.” American Psychological Association. Available at: (https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsl etter/2013/08/cultural-humility). [3] Mwalimu J. Shujaa, Ed.; Haki R. Madhubuti; Molefi Kete Asante; Jacob H. Carruthers; Beverly M. Gordon; Ronald E. Butchart; Joan Davis Ratteray; Violet J. Harris; Vernon C. Polite; Kofi Lomotey; Michele Foster; Vivian L Gadsden; Joyce Elaine King; Thomasyne Lightfoote Wilson; Carol D. Lee; Agyei Akoto; Nah (Dorothy) E. Dove; Nsenga Warfield-Coppock. (1994). Too Much Schooling, Too Little Education: A Paradox of Black Life in White Societies. Africa World Press, Inc. [4] Janel George. (2021). “A Lesson on Critical Race Theory.” American Bar Association. Available at: (https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/public ations/human_rights_magazine_home/civilrights-reimagining-policing/a-lesson-on-criticalrace-theory/). [5] Amir Whitaker; Sylvia Torres-Guillén; Michelle Morton; Harold Jordan; Stefanie Coyle; Angela Mann; Wei-Ling Sun. (2015-2016). Cops and Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff is Harming Students. American Civil Liberties Union. Available at: (https://www.aclu.org/report/cops-and-nocounselors). [6] William Bradshaw & David Roseborough. (2005). Restorative Justice Dialogue: The Impact of Mediation and Conferencing on Juvenile Recidivism. Federal Probation, 69(2). Available at: (https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/69_ 2_4_0.pdf).
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YJI
Lunch & Learn Webinar Series Join the NYS Youth Justice Institute for its monthly webinar series that presents cuttingedge youth justice research to practitioners, policymakers, and academics. Previous topics include delinquency and peer influence, COVID-19 and crime, desistance, and others! Registration is free. Reserve your spot for the next Lunch & Learn or learn more about the series at www.albany.edu/yji.
eh ht t t tu uo ob ba a e er ro om m n nr ra ae eL L e
Watch These and Other Lunch & Learn Presenters at www. albany.edu/yji: Youth Gratitude Matters: How Gratitude Heals, Energizes, & Changes Lives, presented by Robert Emmons, Ph.D. Reflections on the Status & Future of Trauma-Responsive Justice in Communities of Healing, presented by Shawn Marsh, Ph.D. Understanding, Identifying, & Responding to Traumatic Stress Reactions in JusticeInvolved Adolescents: A Call for Trauma-Responsive Services, presented by Keith Cruise, Ph.D. Emerging Justice System Reforms for Emerging Adults, presented by Lael Chester, J.D. Families & Juvenile Probation: Dual or Dueling Supervision?, presented by Adam Fine, Ph.D.
Hon. Edwina Mendelson
Office of Justice Initiatives NYS Unified Court System
Amanda Oren
Monroe County Law Department
ASSESSING & SUSTAINING
Charles Rice
Youth Power
Melissa Sickmund
National Center for Juvenile Justice
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James Acker
SUNY Albany School of Criminal Justice
Linnea Anderson
Washington Association of Juvenile Court Administrators
COURT ADAPTATIONS
Hon. Craig Doran
Administrative Judge New York 7th Judicial District
Sarah E. Lageson
Rutgers University Newark School of Criminal Justice
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KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Hon. Janet DiFiore
CHIEF JUDGE New York State
New York State Chief Judge Janet DiFiore addressed the difficulties the New York State court system encountered as a result of the pandemic, the resulting adjustments, and the spotlight this public health crisis cast on the preexisting crisis of
“Among the many things this pandemic has done over the last 15 months, it has helped us by casting a spotlight, a harsh spotlight, on longstanding inequities and racial disparities in all corners and across our nation. Recognizing that these deeply troubling disparities permeate all aspects of our society and that our courts are certainly no exception.”
racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system. She credited the Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children for their adaptive online training programs, the Raise the Age task force for evaluating the success of the landmark legislation, the Community Resolve Initiative program for implementing restorative justice practices within communities, and the Gender Responsive Initiatives and Partnerships Court’s work in developing and implementing holistic approach to address the needs of justice-involved girls. Throughout her address, she emphasized the importance of continued research and the development of strategies to combat inequities.
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ASSESSING AND SUSTAINING COURT ADAPTATIONS Prior to the pandemic, few justice stakeholders would have imagined that the nation’s courts could have managed the seismic shift necessitated by the emergent public health restrictions. As Dr. Melissa Sickmund, Executive Director of the National Center for Juvenile Justice, summarized, “[Of all the changes], the one that is here to stay is that we know that this big, huge bureaucracy that has always moved slowly can turn on a dime if it has to.” As discussed in this section, the pandemic-induced adaptations of courts around the nation have led to stark revelations. The courts systems and youth justice field have demonstrated a
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MAIN TOPICS DISCUSSED: Virtual court processes, youth and family experiences and engagement, technology barriers, privacy concerns, procedural challenges, court-academia research opportunities, cultural humility, multi-system solutions
larger-than-assumed capacity for change. Courts and other stakeholders must work beyond system silos and with youth, families, and communities to balance nurturing youth with issues of public safety.
And finally, the fundamental principles and practices of juvenile and family courts remain subject to reflection and re-evaluation. Court-Based Adaptations In her keynote address, NYS Chief Judge Janet DiFiore laid out the state’s herculean task of rapidly transitioning from in-person processes to a new virtual format. Operating day and night, seven days a week, the state’s Family Courts maintained hearings for emergency and essential matters including family offenses, child abuse and neglect cases, and cases involving 16- and 17-year-olds transferred from the Youth Parts in criminal courts, as well as youth charged as juvenile delinquents. Judges in the state’s Family Court and Youth Part of the Supreme and County "We've permanently left behind the assumption that courts were places where justice always had to happen in person. The virtual options, using the technology similar to what we're using right now...perhaps that's here to stay and the idea that a physical appearance is necessary for every court action is no longer assumed." -Hon. Edwina Mendelson
Courts conferenced with prosecutors and defense attorneys to assess the status of each youth in confinement and to determine the appropriateness of release. The transition to a virtual platform required a commitment to time-certain hearings. And the NYS Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children developed a training program for attorneys representing children and child welfare staff on using virtual technology and supporting families and children during Family Court hearings. Courts in Washington PAGE FOUR| JOURNEY
state underwent a similar trajectory including a pivot to virtual processes and hearings as well as time-certain scheduling. Washington’s courts also used the pandemic as an opportunity to coordinate with the state health care authority to change licensing requirements for behavioral health services to increase telehealth services, especially in rural communities. Most Beyond 2020 experts agreed that the positive changes resulting from adaptations like time-certain scheduling and access to teleservices mean that families experience less employment risk and education disruption and may also gain a sense of mutual respect from the courts which could encourage compliance with court rulings. However, these adaptations were not without competing challenges. Experts noted that families may struggle with a lack of necessary resources (such as high-speed Wi-Fi, data plans, and even basic computer equipment) as well as a lack of technical knowledge needed to navigate virtual spaces. For those without access to technology, the pivot to virtual processes and services only further disenfranchises them. To mitigate some of these inequities, Hon. Judge Edwina Mendelson, Deputy Chief Administrative Judge and head of the Office for Justice Initiatives (OJI), noted that the court system’s Access to Justice Division (within the OJI) has developed solutions such as community court hubs in libraries, houses of worship, and other community spaces. Further, while the virtual environment provides a better opportunity for time-certain scheduling, in practice this is imperfect, and youth and families have had to wait in digital waiting
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rooms for unknown lengths of time. The shift to virtual hearings also created procedural challenges for youth and stakeholders around the country. In a series of panel workshops conducted by the Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative (PCJNI, an initiative of the RAND Corporation) in 2020, those interviewed found that deferred arrests and hearings had created a backlog of cases, demands, and
needs that may take years to work through even after normal conditions return. [1] The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s (AECF) survey of juvenile justice agencies in 33 states found a 52% decrease in admissions between February and April 2020, yet discovered that as the pandemic continued, the length of time detained was significantly longer for Black and Latinx youth than white youth. [2] A Youth Justice Research Collaborative survey of public defenders found that due process delays resulting from the suspension of in-person proceedings could increase the amount of time in detention facilities for youth arrested and detained pretrial, increase the amount of time on probation supervision, and result in extended orders of protection. Due to the virtual nature of the proceedings, defense attorneys did not have the opportunity to build relationships with their clients, in part due to privacy concerns about the virtual environment that might compromise confidentiality. The barriers to defense attorneys were further complicated by the practicality that their young clients may not have reliable contact information, and they cannot plan to meet with them in person during court appearances as they had done before the pandemic. [3] In March 2021, the National Juvenile Defender Center released a report calling for an end to remote hearings after the pandemic given the significant barriers it creates for defense counsel attempting to advise their clients and the potential for the use of remote hearings to limit access to the courts for
those without access to the required technology. Associate Professor at Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice Dr. Sarah Lageson also pointed to significant privacy risks posed by the virtual proceedings, suggesting the potential for personal information to be broadcast and downloaded from the internet could have a chilling effect on the reporting of crimes and witness testimony. Dr. Lageson pointed to 2020 research findings from North Carolina’s Adult Court where stakeholders found that many court actors observed differential outcomes in virtual proceedings. Among those surveyed, there was majority support for virtual routine low-stakes engagements such as first appearances, counsel advisements, and issuing search warrants. For highstakes engagements that could have significant consequences (e.g., incarceration and involuntary civil commitment) there were higher levels of opposition. This opposition was rooted in concerns about privacy, the ability of jurors to remain focused and communicate effectively, defendant access to effective counsel, and the inability of the judge to directly examine the defendant. [4] These findings indicate that while virtual court proceedings may be useful for certain routine appointments, they may not be suitable for other appointments which demand significant discretion from the jury or judge. Within the context of the virtual environment, Dr. Lageson also noted that there has been a lack of systematic
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tracking of outcomes since the transition to the virtual format. She expressed concern that without systematic data collection, researchers and practitioners will be unable to critically evaluate what factors may be causing a youth to miss court appointments , such as lack of strong familial or community support structures . It is these factors, which lie outside of the control of young people, that are often central to ensuring success in navigating the complex court system. Improving Youth and Family Engagement The Beyond 2020 experts emphasized the need for youth and family engagement as the field designs and adopts a hybrid format as the next normal. Charles Rice of Youth Power challenged the panel and audience to
“How much can they trust that you’re going to actually be here for their community, if you’ve never actually stepped foot in their community?” -Charles Rice
consider the ways in which, before the pandemic, society “began to take a hands-off approach to a very hands-on problem.” He emphasized the need for cultural humility as court stakeholders consider and enact changes that impact youth and families, asking “How much can they trust that you’re going to actually be here for their community, if you’ve never actually stepped foot in their community?” Hon. Judge Craig Doran, panel moderator and judge in New York’s Seventh Judicial District, agreed, asserting that “this P AGGEE 4 F3 O| UBRE Y|OJNODU2R0N2 0E:YC O V I D - 1 9 & Y O U T H PA
loosely woven together concept of justice doesn’t work if those who are seeking justice don’t trust us,” and that direct engagement with communities with a sense of cultural humility is necessary in future revisions to the system. Programs that are culturally relevant and designed to be effective to their intended users tend to produce more beneficial results, as they consider both the problems facing and the strengths of a particular community before producing a tailored action plan. According to an AECF case study which analyzed evidence-based practices geared towards specific populations based on race, ethnicity, rurality, and gender, these tailored programs were successful in addressing the needs of families and communities of color that had traditionally been overlooked in the building of evidence-based program and practice development. [5] This family and community engagement thread continued into discussions about the ways research is conducted. Dr. Sickmund and Linnea Anderson, an officer on the Executive Board of the Washington Association of Juvenile Court Administrators, focused on understanding change from the youth and family perspective. Dr. Sickmund explained that we need to give strength to their voices in these processes. “Sometimes we think we’re doing things and the recipients of our efforts see it very, very differently,” she stated. In the same vein, she suggested that the field must always ask who was helped and who was hurt by the changes made. There has been a growing interest in restorative justice practices both within and beyond New York State, with Chief Justice Janet DiFiore emphasizing the promise of these practices to
promote both accountability and healing through interventions and services to help youth understand the harm they have caused, heal relationships, and change their behaviors in the future when discussing the Community Resolve Initiative in New York City. A 2016 participatory action research study by Community Connections for Youth and United Playaz of New York, administered in "Sometimes we think we’re doing the Bronx, NY by a group of youth formerly things and the recipients of our involved with the justice system, found that efforts see it very, very differently" of the 1,417 cases opened in 2014 in the -Melissa Sickmund Bronx, only 24% of cases were adjusted, with the rest referred for prosecution. Those conducting the report acknowledged that there has been a significant drop of almost two-thirds in the overall number of cases going to probation since 2010 but found that more of these cases could be adjusted if youth were given more autonomy to select the programs that they found most relevant to their lives and an overall reduction in the number of programs they were enrolled in to avoid overburdening the youth. The majority of youth whose cases made it to court used a public defender or court-appointed private attorney, and researchers questioned whether their counsel had “adequate resources to give each young person’s case the amount of time it deserves.” Moreover, they found it troubling that only 51% of youth surveyed reported their counsel asking them what they thought should happen in their case, as they felt this lack of opportunity for input may produce “a sense of helplessness and a diminishment of their autonomy and value.” [6]
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Addressing Disparities and Guiding Future Work Hon. Judge Mendelson asserted the importance of “knowing our data,” meaning all stakeholders should understand justice system data regarding race, ethnicity, and other disparities, as well as the data about arrests, prosecution, confinement, and other outcomes at the state and national levels. She explained, “We are experiencing the smallest system touch on young people that we’ve had in a very long time... over the last 20 years or so, we have had a 70% reduction in our juvenile justice as well as child welfare activity.” However, she also noted that despite this net decrease in youth contacting the system, racial and ethnic disparities have actually increased. For example, a Youth Justice Research Collaborative evaluation of Raise the Age implementation in New York City, found that of 2,522 arrests of 16-year-old youth in the first year of Raise the Age, almost all were Black (61%) or Latinx (32%). Though Black and Latinx youth represent just 22% and 36% respectively of children in the city, 88% of youth seen in Family Court and 95% of youth seen in the Youth Parts of the Supreme and County Courts were youth of color. [7] Efforts to understand and address racial and ethnic disparities post-pandemic can be buttressed, the courts experts suggested, by collaborative research and practice innovations. Hon. Doran and Dr. Acker described the appeal of academiacourt collaborations that would leverage
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resources and analytical capacity to assist practitioners in developing workable policy recommendations. When asked for their priority research questions, the experts listed the following: What is underlying the uptick in violent crime? Are youth being disproportionately impacted by violent crime? Are they the alleged perpetrators in this uptick? What is the accurate data on the race and ethnicities of youth and families contacting the court system? To whom does the “other” category refer? What familial disruptions did in-person court hearings cause pre-pandemic? Have there been improvements during the pandemic, or has the problem been exacerbated? Has the move to remote courts and hearings increased or decreased safety for those contacting the courts and those working within court systems? The courts experts also described ambitious ideas and cautions for research in the pandemic’s aftermath. Dr. Acker suggested a cross-sectional analysis of court adaptations across New York’s 62 counties. By comparing pre- and postpandemic metrics on youth behavior, offenses, court processes, and outcomes, a methodology could be developed to understand the counties’ different approaches and the different impacts of these approaches. Suggesting that the current moment is also a ripe space to reevaluate some of the fundamental priorities and purposes of the family court
system, Dr. Acker supported convening multidisciplinary stakeholders including community members, victims of crime, families of youth who are justice-involved, educators, court personnel, police, and prosecutors to balance various competing interests and arrive at a solution that balances the need for public safety with the need for effective and efficient use of resources. Dr. Sickmund sees in this moment the impetus to move beyond single-system oriented approaches. She cautioned that systems must evaluate the decrease in contacts with the juvenile justice system against youth contacts with other related systems such as movement to the child protective system. To accomplish this, it is necessary to continue to evaluate the “Now what did we actually do about it? Are we just going to talk about it, I know there's an old saying that a goal without a plan is just a dream...if we're not actually doing anything about it we've just wasted a bunch of time that we'll never be able to get back." -Charles Rice
perceptions of actors not just within the court system, but also within law enforcement, child welfare services, and educational environments to determine where these various systems overlap and where they might be experiencing strain. When organizations do not receive sufficient support, or when their processes are ineffective for the role they serve, they will be less able to meaningfully support the youth and families they serve. Dr. Sickmund also
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stated that the court does not need to be the first point of intervention for struggling youth, and it may be both more cost-effective and less harmful to youth to invest in communities rather than removing the child from the community. With a practice-focused emphasis on moving forward, Charles Rice emphasized the need not just for data collection, but for an actionable plan forward based on both previous attempts and recent data collection. He found that attempting to analyze the problem without putting these findings into practice would do nothing to support individuals in that community, stating that “a goal without a plan is just a dream.” Many Beyond 2020 experts agreed, that in moving forward, the field must identify how courtbased adjustments may have impacted the communities they serve and whether these impacts are unevenly distributed across jurisdictions. There remains a significant need for better systematic tracking of court outcomes, particularly when it comes to the use of virtual hearings, as this transition may have deepened preexisting inequities. While the number of youth in detention decreased during the pandemic’s initial months, court actors must continue to evaluate the needs of youth and consider whether detention is an appropriate option when other opportunities may be available. In considering diversion programs, the courts must act with cultural humility and remain open to the potential in culturally specific programs that may differ from traditional approaches but offer meaningful support to youth.
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Emerging Research Questions and Considerations The standards for data collection should be raised and extended to self-reported demographic information by the youth themselves to avoid inaccuracies. The increase in arrests for violent charges requires further qualitative data and research to confirm when the increase in violent crimes occurred, why this occurred, and identify the impacts on youth, adults, and communities. Track success: Increase the range of juvenile justice data beyond failure metrics and diversion statistics, to include factors such as continued success in education, employment, and connection with positive role models. Use longitudinal studies to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on children, and how this impact may change behavior or impose costs over time. Consider how states will provide researchers access to expunged and sealed records as Clean Slate Initiatives are enacted. [8] How will these changes in the law impact the assessment of long-term outcome measurements? Measure the effects of diversion on a large scale on public safety. If there is little to no impact, how can we restructure the system to avoid detainment? If there is a notable negative impact, what are the underlying reasons for this, and are they related to the public health crisis?
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SOURCES [1] Brian A. Jackson, Michael J.D. Vermeer, Dulani Woods, Duren Banks, Sean E. Goodison, Joe Russo, Jeremy D. Barnum, Camille Gourdet, Lynne Langton, Michael G. Planty, et al. (2020). How the Criminal Justice System's COVID-19 Response has Provided Valuable Lessons for Broader Reform. Rand Corporation. [2] The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (June 2020). Survey: 52% Drop in Admissions to Youth Detention in Two Months Matches Reduction Over 13 Years. Available at: (https://www.aecf.org/blog/survey-52drop-in-admissions-to-youth-detention-in-two-months-matches-reduc). The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (March 2021). Survey: A Pandemic High for the Number of Black Youth in Juvenile Detention. Available at: (https://www.aecf.org/blog/survey-a-pandemic-high-for-the-number-of-black-youth-injuvenile-detention). [3] Youth Justice Research Collaborative. (June 2020). Responses to a Survey of Public Defenders. Available at: https://opencuny.org/yjrc/files/2020/06/Copy-of-COVID-19-Impacts-on-Youth-Justice21.pdf [4] Carly Lenhoff. (March 2021). Due Process in the Time of COVID: Defenders as First Responders in a Juvenile Court System Struggling with the COVID-19 Pandemic. National Juvenile Defender Center. Available at: (https://njdc.info/wp-content/uploads/Due-Process-in-the-Time-of-COVID-19.pdf). [5] The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2017). Considering Culture: Building the Best Evidence-Based Practices for Children of Color. Annie E. Casey Foundation. Available at: https://assets.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/aecf-consideringculture-2017.pdf [6] Charles Hudgins, Alex Figueroa, Darius Hills, Davonté Lewis. (February 2016). Support Not Punish: Participatory Action Research Report. Available at: (https://www.njjn.org/uploads/digitallibrary/CCFY-Support-Not-Punish-PAR-Report_Feb-2016.pdf) [7] Youth Justice Research Collaborative. (August 2020). Evaluating the Implementation of Raise the Age in New York City. Available at: (https://opencuny.org/yjrc/files/2020/08/Raise-the-AgeEvaluation-Policy-Brief.pdf) [8] The Clean Slate Initiative is a proposed bipartisan policy model that proposes automatically clearing criminal records of a certain type if the individual remains crime-free for a significant period following their release. For more information, visit their website at: https://cleanslateinitiative.org/
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New York State Policy Equity Academy
YJI
In June 2021, the YJI launched the inaugural session of the New York State Policy Equity Academy. Developed in collaboration with the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) and the Center for Children’s Law and Policy, the Academy welcomes 5 participating counties – Albany County, Monroe County, Onondaga County, Schenectady County, and Westchester County. The county teams are comprised of diverse stakeholders including probation, youth and families, courts, law enforcement, and social services. Each county will work toward the goal of reducing racial and ethnic disparities in its probation adjustment process. In addition to the course instruction, the counties will receive technical assistance and funding support to implement reforms. For more information on the Academy and the collaboration that created it, please read this recent DCJS press release.
eh ht t t tu uo ob ba a e er ro om m n nr ra ae eL L e
YJI Technical Assistance Portal The YJI is excited to announce the launch of its new technical assistance request portal. The Institute generally works on a wide range of topics related to youth justice. We are best situated to provide support around training development, tool development, information gathering, subject matter expert identification, qualitative research strategies, data analysis and infrastructure support, and data visualization. Visit www.albany.edu/yji to learn more. Evidence-Based Programs and Practices in Youth Justice The YJI is excited to announce the launch of its new Evidence-Based Programs and Practices in Youth Justice Clearinghouse! This clearinghouse aims to support jurisdictions seeking evidence-based youth and family-focused programs and practices. This interactive dashboard allows users to explore programs and practices by setting, support area, goal, and/or ranking. Visit www.albany.edu/yji to access this new resource.
Teresa Scanu Hansen
NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services
Trista Deame
NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services
TRAUMA & HEALING LeConté Dill
New York University Global School of Public Health
Shalain Garcia
NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services
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John Johnson
NYS Office of Children and Family Services
Lani Jones
SUNY Albany School of Social Welfare
THROUGH AN R.E.D. LENS
Saafir Northington
Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition
Dina Thompson
Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition
Walter Simpkins
Community Fathers Inc.
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KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Gary Younge
AUTHOR Another Day in the Death of America
Journalist, author, and Professor Gary Younge reflected on the reality of violent crime impacting young people in the United States and the United Kingdom. He described a pervasive bias in news coverage especially around youth violence, both in terms of
“But the fact is that if you make it harder for young people to stay in education, harder for them to get treatment if they are mentally ill, harder for them to find safe and productive places to spend leisure time with each other, and with adults who are trained to work with them, then we shouldn't be surprised to see an increase in social problems among the young.” what was reported and what was left uncovered, while finding that coverage has frequently failed to examine the systemic factors that fail to prevent violence among and between youth. He encouraged journalists and policy makers to explore how disinvestment in education and mental health assistance exacerbates violence. While he suggests we cannot declaratively suggest that one caused the other, it could be possible to engage in preventative work rather than waiting for tragedy before resolving the issue through police intervention.
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TRAUMA & HEALING THROUGH AN R.E.D. LENS The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated another angle by which stakeholders see and understand the severity of public health, social welfare, and justice system inequities. Primarily communities of color and lowincome communities have grappled with employment in high-risk sectors, inadequate healthcare access, limited access to wireless internet and computers, heightened justice system surveillance, and the repercussions of historical and current mistreatment by justice systems. In their discussions, expert advisors and panelists identified the ways that the
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MAIN TOPICS DISCUSSED: Healing frameworks for youth, caregivers, and practitioners; intergenerational perspectives; systems roles in community healing; truth and reconciliation processes; historical oppression; trauma and healing responses in schools pandemic completely disrupted education access for some youth, set back progress that had been made in connecting youth and families to supports in their communities, burned out caregivers, contributed to court delays, limited access to proceedings for
those without the technical resources to appear virtually, and compounded and created new traumas for millions of people. When asked to reflect on all this, Saafir Northington, Youth Coordinator for the Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition, explained that “the [twin] pandemics have shown just how reactive our system is . . . but we need to get ahead of that curve . . .it’s easy to put a band-aid on the cut after the cut happens, but what are you doing to remove the items that’s causing the cutting?” [1] This section on implementing trauma and healing responses through an R.E.D. lens attempts to record the Beyond 2020 experts’ discussions on the evolution of healing as a support framework for justice-impacted youth and their communities and the roles of systems in facilitating healing frameworks. The urgency of this conversation deepens as the world nears the end of the pandemic’s second year and the impacts of loss and
“The [twin] pandemics have shown just how reactive our system is . . . but we need to get ahead of that curve . . .it’s easy to put a band-aid on the cut after the cut happens, but what are you doing to remove the items that are causing the cutting?” -Saafir Northington
isolation continue to mount for youth, families, and communities. The Evolution of Healing as an Intervention Framework Since the early 2000s, children and family services agencies have worked to integrate trauma-informed care and practices which emphasize the need to understand a cohesive and complete picture of a person’s life situation to map a successful path to recovery. [2] This shift marks a recognition that meaningful service and support for youth requires
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practitioners to shift their focus of inquiry about a youth’s actions from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”. Trauma-informed care also creates space for practitioners to intentionally deepen their understanding of youth’s adverse childhood experiences, and more recently, adverse community experiences/environments. These shifts support a transition that deemphasizes punitive and isolationist responses to behavioral problems in favor of service provision and recovery for impacted youth and their families. Currently, practitioners and researchers in a multitude of fields are exploring new modalities in trauma responses, prevention, and support services. Healing as a potential support framework is pushing the question about youth experiences from “what happened to you” to “what’s right with you?”
As a concept, community healing is rooted in indigenous cultures that have incorporated healing in their spiritual practices for thousands of years. Though these practices are varied across regions and communities, they center healing for the individuals causing harm, those who have been harmed, and the broader community. While the adversarial justice system used in the U.S. focuses on hierarchical power to determine if an individual is guilty or not for the purposes of punishing an offender, indigenous peacemaking practices focus on the process of reconciliation between individuals. This community healing framework has become central to restorative justice models in the U.S., which seek to provide an alternative to traditional criminal justice practices by focusing on repairing harm, strengthening relationships, and maintaining community ties. [3] During the panel on Trauma & Healing through an R.E.D. Lens, attendees were asked to submit an anonymous response to the question: "What specific words or phrases are you taking away from this discussion today?" These were then made into the word cloud to the left, with the size of the words proportional to the number of times attendees submitted that specific word or phrase as a response.
P AGGEE 5 F5 O| UBRE Y|OJNODU2R0N2 0E:YC O V I D - 1 9 & Y O U T H PA
Even with millennia of history and practice, healing as a support intervention can feel amorphous and difficult to concretize and measure from a programmatic or policy standpoint. For example, as part of this COVID-19 & Youth project, the YJI asked forum attendees to choose a word that defines healing for them. The request garnered over 400 unique entries, a sampling is included in the word cloud on the previous page.
Founder of Flourish Agenda. Dr. Ginwright explains that HCE views those exposed to trauma “as agents in the creation of their own well-being rather than victims of traumatic events.” [4] He argues that a healing lens is imperative to reducing youth recidivism; as well as for supporting youth as they gain skills for healthy trauma management, heal from their experiences, and move forward with their lives.
The Beyond 2020 experts noted the difference between healing in a more medicalized usage in contrast to an engagement framework like Healing Centered Engagement (HCE), a term originally coined by Dr. Shawn Ginwright, Professor of Education and a Senior Research Associate at San Francisco State University and CEO and
What Does Healing Look Like? To integrate a healing framework that is impactful and accepted by the community, Dr. LeConté Dill, a professor in the African American and African Studies at Michigan State University, urges the youth justice field to recognize organically arising healing
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practices alongside the restorative and transformative offerings by organizations and agencies. Some of these processes, she notes, may be familiar to us—like candlelight vigils, signs and shirts declaring the names of victims of violence in remembrance, gathering community members, dancing, and artwork—though they are often not recognized for their power as public healing rituals. Beyond 2020 experts also provided the examples below of healing frameworks in action across stakeholder groups. Healing for Caregivers In all three expert advisory groups, members discussed seeing substantially heightened levels of caregiver burnout. Dina
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Thompson, Executive Director of the Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition, described caregivers’ support circles she and colleagues are holding to support families of color during the pandemic. The group has been particularly helpful for women who have been the backbones of their families, many of whom are also essential workers. The creation of a space for telling their stories, for being seen and heard by others, has been emotionally helpful and fortifying to these participants. While the groups may not solve all their problems, many participants state that they leave the group feeling like they are going to make it. Thompson sees the work of restorative practitioners in this role as being accessible in time, place, and space to enable the caregivers to create their own healing solutions.
Healing for Youth
Healing for Practitioners
Walter Simpkins, Executive Director of Community Fathers, Inc. in Schenectady, noted that some youth are not yet able to verbalize what they need from others and explain where they are facing difficulty in their lives. At Community Fathers, adult mentors will often ask a young person to tell them two stories, one about a little boy and another about a teenager. Through the stories, the mentors can see that youth acting out in their teenage years are responding to trauma rooted in their boyhood experiences. Through this process, what starts out as a lighthearted storytelling exercise becomes an explanation of how youth’s formative experiences have led them to their current framework for viewing themselves and the world. As Simpkins says, “I think that it’s how we start to look at our youth and look at them through the eyes of unconditional love that we’ll be able to heal a lot of the trauma that they’ve experienced.”
Dr. Joseph Tomassone, Acting Associate Commissioner for Programs and Services at the Office of Children and Family Services, spoke about practitioners understanding the need for restorative practices regarding the youth they serve, but rarely put these practices to use when engaging with one another. While those in helping professions such as psychologists and teachers often recognize the need for compassion and understanding of both the past experiences and trauma of youth, he finds that some practitioners resist these strategies. While the conversation for healing tends to focus on youth receiving system services, he suggests that centering healing with intra-staff relationships could not only benefit staff members but also the youth they collectively serve.
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Healing and the Generations In discussing how people are interconnected beyond physical communities and throughout time, Saafir Northington discussed the indigenous concept of Seven Generations, which emphasizes that the wellbeing of every future generation rests on the generations preceding them. [5] When asked about generational responses to the pandemic and healing as an intervention, he explained that youth take cues from the adults in their lives, if these mentor figures respond to crises and create divisiveness, then young people will internalize this sense of divisiveness. Yet he also emphasized the role of youth in creating positive change by learning from the experiences of those who came before them, reflecting on their own experiences, and considering how their actions will continue to impact people in the future: "I think when we talk about multi-generational viewpoints... [communication] is so essential between generations and... I think as I get older, I'm learning to appreciate more and more of that knowledge [my parents passed down to me], but also taking that knowledge and using what I've experienced for myself as fuel to create change. It's not any one generation that's going to solve the issue, it's the connectedness between all of the generations that will solve the majority of our problems...we need to work together to provide the next generations the best chance possible.” When discussing empowering youth to enact positive change, Northington highlighted the importance of including youth voice in community conversations, stating “The easiest way to figure out how to help our youth and how to better resource our youth,” he says, “is to actually use youth.” Groups composed entirely of adults, whether they are systems actors or community members, he explained, may not know what issues youth are facing or what problems they consider to be the most significant in their lives. Dr. Dill shared these thoughts and urged system stakeholders to PAGE 59 | BEYOND 2020: COVID-19 & YOUTH
actively seek out and incorporate the voices of youth in determining best practices for youth healing. She asserted that youth themselves should determine the healing practices that best serve them, and it is the role of system actors to provide support for youth in facilitating their healing process. These organic rituals, like dancing and art listed above, are models that could be scaled up.
"We are more powerful when we combine ourselves with others." -John Johnson
John Johnson of the Office of Community Partnerships within the NYS Office of Children and Family Services suggested that whereas older generations focus on obtaining trauma management skills to help them remain functional, younger generations now view healing as a fundamental right. Education keynote speaker Dr. Isaiah Pickens emphasized the importance of cultivating a sense of psychological safety in youth.
Without this sense, some may revert to negative coping mechanisms that make them feel in control. While this conversation centers the internal process of healing, Northington and Shalain Garcia of the Office of Youth Justice within the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services explained that access to resources remains critical to enabling healing. Garcia asserted that the “temporary fix” of increased economic support to families during the pandemic would inevitably lead to the same economic insecurity that existed prior to the pandemic without any clear governmental plan to address these insecurities. Walter Simpkins connected this scarcity of physical resources and the related stress to the emotional and mental health impacts on youth and families:
introduction and evolutionary process within systems and impacted populations. This evolution and integration would likely face both practical and philosophical barriers. The prominent discourse on healing via HCE is currently built on principles of support such as cultural grounding, community empowerment, social justice, empathy building, and critical reflection as opposed to concretely measurable practices. While there are certainly experiential elements common to the communities disproportionately impacted by the justice system, implementing these principles also requires responsiveness to and action based on the unique experiences of communities and the individuals within them.
"One of the major problems in our community is love scarcity. . . there’s always lack of money, there’s a lack of food, there’s a lack of resources, and mainly there’s a lack of love because these people who are trying to provide for your well-being are so taxed and down from the other aspects of trying to cope with the systems that are affecting them. So, one of the main things that our youth feels is a love scarcity, because they’re not getting what they need to make them feel like they are loved unconditionally.”
Language may also pose a barrier. “Healing” as a term may invoke uneasiness with some stakeholder groups, especially those who see their roles as enforcementfocused, in contrast to support-focused. Healing the practitioner is also a key tenet of the HCE framework and restorative practices, with a common axiom in the fields being “harmed people harm people” and as ECRJC counters, “restored people restore people.” The idea of a conceptual framework that is contingent on practitioners also exploring their own experiences of harm and engaging in selfwork and self-care may be difficult for some employees to accept and for employers to support or enforce, though as one expert put it “helping people heal is also good supervision practice.”
The Role of Systems in Healing as Support Stakeholders in the expert advisory process noted that reform work in recent years has made trauma-informed care and resilience familiar concepts to most system actors. Integrating a framework centered instead on healing would have to undergo its own
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Several Beyond 2020 experts agreed that shifting to a healing model necessitated fundamentally rethinking the normative power structures that exist between systems actors and community members. Shalain Garcia focused on the power of transformational relationships and the strengths-based approach as a means of avoiding replicating past mistakes, where systems actors have created policies that have harmed communities by focusing exclusively on what is going wrong within those communities. She explained that moving away from a transactional approach towards a relationship approach will allow systems actors to develop trusting relationships within those communities that facilitate active engagement in collaboration. When considering how to build the legitimacy of systems to support healing in historically oppressed communities, the group’s conversation turned to models of truth and reconciliation processes around the world. Examples of truth and reconciliation are rare in the U.S. In 2019, a group called Virginians for Reconciliation did successfully lobby for a state proclamation that 2019 is the year of Reconciliation in Virginia. To gain trust and effectively support healing solutions, Dina Thompson explained that systems need to review current and historical policies and acknowledge their disproportionate and harmful impacts on marginalized populations. Systems must internally ask and answer, she said, “What harms have happened because of these policies? How can these harms be healed going forward?” She referred to this intra-system work as the pre-truth and reconciliation process. Only once the pre-reconciliation process is completed will systems be able to understand the context of the issues, widen the circle, and bring others into the conversation. The system can then discuss what harms they have internally identified and then hear the harms identified by the community. In a relevant example, Walter Simpkins discussed the mass incarceration resulting from the crack cocaine epidemic and war on drugs. Referring to the government’s response in the early 1990s, he stated, “They would come into the community saying it was a war on drugs... that sounded like we need to get the drugs out of the community, but all of a sudden it got us out of the community by mass incarceration... We’re seeing a continuation of how the policies have always existed to keep people of color at a certain level of non-participation.” Through the means of mass incarceration, the justice system attacked the issue of substance abuse by removing related individuals from the community. Under these circumstances, the community was viewed by systems as needing assistance from an outside source and did not consider incorporating voices from within the community. While some today recognize the issues surrounding mass incarceration, there has not been a robust discussion centered on how to heal the harm done to these individuals and communities. In this way, the responses of the communities served can help to guide system actors in the most productive direction possible, addressing the needs of the community as a means of reducing the conditions that lead to justice system involvement.
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John Johnson urged practitioners to shift their thinking so that they are not distancing themselves from “those families” and “those communities,” while viewing themselves as removed from and above those families and communities. He said that instead of approaching the situation as, “we gotta help them, [we] gotta stop them from killing each other,” practitioners would better serve themselves and the community by remembering that “it’s not them, it’s us, [we have to help] us get better.” He noted that this shift does not cost stakeholders anything, except perhaps for some positional power and mental and emotional distance that enables the compartmentalization of the experiences of those perceived to be “others.” Trauma and Healing in Schools The education and trauma and healing expert advisory groups both considered the role of restorative supports in education. Much of the foundations of healing as a concept seem in alignment with restorative practices that are growing in popularity and impact in schools around the country. Experts in the Trauma and Healing group specifically questioned how schools will respond to the trauma-related behaviors that have and will continue to surface as schools return to inperson learning (or continue to oscillate between in-person and online). Will these responses reflect a reliance on traditional punitive models and simultaneously further the disconnection of vulnerable youth populations and exacerbate disparities? Saafir Northington cautioned the field to not assume that academics are what students need most from schools right now. He asked
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stakeholders to consider the following: “What things are we providing to the community that is more important than the system being upheld? We’ve seen through the pandemic that the education system failed because the system wasn’t designed to support the needs of the youth, it was designed to support a different agenda that people had set as a priority without even asking the individuals that they were trying to serve.” Discussions of healing as an engagement framework for youth contacting justice systems are nascent. Interest in the framework has grown as practitioners have embraced the idea that both individual and community wellness are key factors in support and prevention for youth in historically oppressed groups. This recognition of the value of individual and community wellness, coupled with the awareness that systems can and do perpetuate harms that undermine the very outcomes they claim to desire, creates a nexus for communication and collaboration between systems and communities. A commitment to supporting those who have been harmed and those who have caused harm, as well as system stakeholders, is an untried path in justice reform. As many of the Beyond 2020 experts indicated, the field already knows through experience what does not work. A better next normal requires courage, partnership, and a willingness to let go of the policies, practices, and philosophies that have failed so many in the past.
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Research and Practice Questions As with the other expert advisory groups, the Trauma and Healing expert group and panel have challenged the field, both researchers and practitioners, to consider the following questions: How does a healing approach apply to the work of a probation officer? How would a probation system embrace healing while balancing accountability and safety provisions? How can we make healing work understandable for those in law enforcement that may have emotional barriers or limited exposure to healing practices? Is healing work already being done in law enforcement under a different name? How do we encourage systems stakeholders to see that self-care is included in healing across disciplines? And that “self-work” is necessary to avoid inflicting harm on others, intentionally or unintentionally. As the Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition describes this, “restored people, restore people.” How are leaders being held accountable to practices of healing and restorative justice? Making these commitments visible? How can systems, some of which many communities consider to be causing harm, also legitimately lead or support communities is conversations about healing? How do we provide concrete demonstrations of healing centered engagement for youth children’s services stakeholders? SOURCES [1] Throughout the forum, many speakers and advisory group members referred to the spread of racial injustice as a pandemic as well as the spread of COVID-19 throughout the world. As a pandemic is defined by its spread across a wide geographic area and its impact on a significant portion of the population, many participants felt that racial injustice qualified given its impact across the globe throughout history. [2] Shawn Ginwright. (May 2018). The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement. Available at: (https://ginwright.medium.com/the-future-of-healing-shifting-from-trauma-informed-care-tohealing-centered-engagement-634f557ce69c). [3] For more information and firsthand accounts of indigenous practices in North America, reference the following: [Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation and Other Indigenous People of North America. (2004). International Institute for Restorative Practices. Available at: https://www.iirp.edu/news/restorative-justice-practices-ofnative-american-first-nation-and-other-indigenous-people-of-north-america-part-one] [4] Shawn Ginwright. (May 2018). The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement. Available at: (https://ginwright.medium.com/the-future-of-healing-shifting-from-trauma-informed-care-tohealing-centered-engagement-634f557ce69c). [5] For more information about the Seven Generations Principle please consider the following resources: Woodbine Ecology Center. “Indigenous Values.” Available at: (https://woodbinecenter.org/indigenous-values); City of Albuquerque: Albuquerque Museum. (2021). Seven Generations of Red Power in New Mexico. Available at: (https://www.cabq.gov/artsculture/albuquerque-museum/exhibitions/seven-generations-of-red-power).
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MOVING FORWARD The YJI continues efforts to concretize and actionize the conversations begun in this pursuit of a post-pandemic better next normal. Over the next year, we will maintain a focus on court-based adaptations, trauma and healing, and education as a protective factor, all through a lens of eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in youth justice. We anticipate a shift in format as we seek to identify and amplify the work of youth justice researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who are pushing the field toward more fairness, equity, and well-being for youth, their families, and their communities. This amplification will involve the solicitation and publication of targeted research and practice briefs, virtual presentations, and/or other movement-supporting strategies that refine our understanding of the questions raised regarding COVID-19 and youth.
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For more information on the YJI’s work in this area and to watch the 2020 and 2021 forums, please visit our COVID-19 & Youth microsite at www.albany.edu/yji or email YJI staff at youthjustice@albany.edu.
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Prepared by the NYS Youth Justice Institute.
Visual notes by Drawing Impact.
To request permission to reproduce any part of this document, please contact the Institute at youthjustice@albany.edu.
The opinions and comments attributed to panelists and speakers in this document are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of the NYS Youth Justice Institute and its partners.
September 2021