Recent Star Tribune articles about juvenile justice and explosive growth of crime in our community are missing the heart of the matter. We keep putting fires out that could have been prevented. The car jackings, transit crimes and other juvenile violence making life miserable for so many of us didn’t begin when these children became juveniles. It started with traumas suffered in the home mostly caused by parents that suffered the same violence and abuse as children.
We continue to be surprised when the Juvenile Justice system fails to help traumatized kids that fail in school and community because of terrible things that happened to them as children. Young moms without parenting skills, a drug problem and violent boyfriend (in and out of our justice system for decades).
Bear with me please – there are solutions.
Minnesota’s former Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz (and sitting Justice Anne McKeig) have both commented that 90% of the youth in Juvenile Justice have passed through Child Protective Services. They believe that our community needs to put more attention on at risk children while there is still a chance to address and heal their abuse and give them the skills they need to fit in at school and with their peers.
The ink is out of the bottle by the time a 13 year old gets pregnant or involved in carjackings and Juvenile Justice. We continue to try, but Juvenile Justice leads to criminal Justice and the almost 90% recidivism in the prison system (nationally) at nine years. We have proven for decades that this is nuts and has never worked.
Bobby Joe Champion (from the Star Tribune article) points out that about half the youth in Juvenile Justice on extended probation end up with criminal sentences imposed. He wants us to stop sending kids to prison and work on the root causes that wrecked their lives.
If Chief Justice Blatz and Justice McKeig are right, we should be investigating the institutional outcomes of Child Protective Services and pointing our resources at policies that work.
Today, Child Protective services and Juvenile Justice seem to be creating what they were designed to stop. Decades of prison building and increased violent crime and unsafe neighborhoods.
Reversing this trend means knowing the difference between what’s working and what’s not working. Measuring critical institutional outcomes will give us the information we need to focus our resources. Today, our Minnesota County Guardian ad Litem program measures number of cases, filing on-time, complying with federal and state mandates, and expenses. This doesn’t reflect at all on outcomes for the children in the program.
KARA proposes Child Protective Services
including the Guardian Ad Litem Program
measure and track :
Are children safe?
Did concurrent permanency planning with relative/kin begin on Day 1?
Are children spending the least amount of time under court jurisdiction?
Are parents participating in services that reflect the best interest of the children?
Are children receiving appropriate services including trauma informed care?
Are the physical, cultural, educational and mental health needs of the children being met?
Are children being reunited with parents when it is in the best interest of the children?
How many children are re-entering the child protection system?
We think this is a strong list of critical outcomes. They come directly from the State’s self reported Guardian ad Litem Purpose. But we are not seeing these metrics reported or tracked on these critical outcomes by the State or County.
This former volunteer CASA guardian ad Litem is thinks that not reporting metrics about outcomes, we can’t make improve decision making and can never know where best to put our resources. We will forever keep doing things that don’t work. Please share this with your legislative friends and other policy makers.
KARA reports on the issues of child abuse and child protection
This article submitted by CASA volunteer Mike Tikkanen
KARA Public Service Announcement (30 seconds)
KARA Signature Video (4 minute)
INVISIBLE CHILDREN campus programs here
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children