Pensylvania's Juvenile Justice System

The enactment of Act 33 of Special Session No. 1 of 1995 statutorily established the goals of balanced and restorative justice (BARJ) as the mission of Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system. Passage of Act 33 required that Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system “provide for children committing delinquent acts programs of supervision, care and rehabilitation which provide balanced attention to the protection of the community, the imposition of accountability for offenses committed and the development of competencies to enable children to become responsible and productive members of the community.” Stakeholders needed to learn new skills to translate these changes into practice. Consequently, a partnership of key agencies, known as the Juvenile Advisory Committee, formed to guide and educate stakeholders in BARJ, and created a mission statement to reflect these profound changes.

Since 1995, Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system has operated under the tenets of BARJ.

The first concrete step in developing Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Strategy (JJSES) was to create a Statement of Purpose. The Statement of Purpose was designed to reflect the underlying goals of balanced and restorative justice (BARJ) and of the JJSES initiative:

• Enhancing the capacity of our juvenile justice system to achieve its balanced and restorative justice mission through the implementation of evidence-based practices;
  
• Demonstrating an ongoing commitment to data collection, analysis, and research; and
  
• Demonstrating a commitment to continuous quality improvement in every aspect of the system.

JJSES Statement of Purpose

We dedicate ourselves to working in partnership to enhance the capacity of Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system to achieve its balanced and restorative justice mission by:

• Employing evidence-based practices with fidelity at every stage of the juvenile justice process;
  
• Collecting and analyzing the data necessary to measure the results of these efforts; and with this knowledge,
  
• Striving to continuously improve the quality of our decisions, services, and programs.
  

Pennsylvania’s JJSES was implemented in 2010 and rested on two interlinked foundations: the best empirical research available in the field of juvenile justice and a set of core beliefs about how to put this research into practice. First, Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice stakeholders began implementing strategies that are grounded in evidence-based practices (EBP) and aim to enhance youths' competencies and to change youthful behavior that leads to unlawful acts. Consistent with Pennsylvania’s BARJ mission, EBP seeks to prevent delinquency and out-of-home placement by working with youth to reduce their risk of recidivism and to enhance those protective factors that result in a law-abiding life. Second, the set of core beliefs asserted:

• Children should be diverted from formal court processing whenever appropriate;
  
• Meeting the needs of victims is an important goal of the juvenile justice system;
  
• We need to develop and maintain strong partnerships with service providers; and
  
• We can, and should, do a better job of involving families in all that we do.
  

The JJSES is the framework within which EBP and the set of core beliefs became a reality in Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system.

Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Strategy Framework(opens in a new tab)

Since 2012, Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system has operated based on the framework of the JJSES.