New Haven Independent

Three dozen people involved in the issue crammed into a little conference room at Career High School on Tuesday afternoon to learn how to go about it.

Ann-Marie DeGraffenreidt, the director of program development for the Bureau of Juvenile Services of the Department of Children and Families (pictured, preparing to pass out information packets) presented the basics of how to go about setting up a juvenile review board. The goal of these programs is to divert youth from the juvenile court system (or the adult court system if they are 16 or older) who commit minor offenses and would benefit from community intervention, as opposed to court intervention.

In order for a youth’s offense to be handled through the Judicial Review Board (JRB) rather than the juvenile court, he or she must admit to the offense and his or her “responsible adult” (not necessarily a parent) must agree to participate in the process and sign a contract to that effect. According to a handout from an existing “youth aid panel” in Pennsylvania, the goals of such a program are “to prevent the youth from becoming more deeply involved in delinquent behaviors, the juvenile justice system and possible costly detentions; to provide a means of an amicable resolution for the victim; and to hold the juvenile responsible to both the victim and community through completion of panel-imposed obligations.”

Such review boards provide a much quicker resolution than working through the court system and also save taxpayers money. A key element is that the youth must “make things right” with the victim and the community through restitution and/or community service.

DeGraffenreidt reiterated several times that the New Haveners who come together to do the planning will be able to design it the way they want to. To exemplify some of the options, she said Bridgeport’s JRB serves the whole city, while Hartford’s serves just two neighborhoods. A community could even decide if the review board would handle only first-time offenders, or whether it would accept youth who have had more than one run-in with the law.

The juvenile review boards are set up under the auspices of DCF and the Support Services Division of the state judicial branch. All the panel members are volunteers, ideally representing many different segments of the community. At the informational meeting on Tuesday, those present included some actual teenagers, as well as parents, members of youth-serving agencies, a criminal justice reform group, at least one elected official, and a representative of the New Haven police department.

Representatives of the agencies reiterated the importance of having broad community representation, including youth. John Roorbach of the Support Services Division said, “Sometimes the JRB comes down with more draconian consequences for a kid than the juvenile court would - especially when youth are on the panel.”

Barbara Fair, of People Against Injustice, asked, “Who really has the power to make this work or not work?”

“The community and the police” was the answer.

She pressed, “But if the review board says, ‘We accept this child,’ and the police say, ‘We don’t,’…”

“You would never get that off the ground,” chimed in Michael Jefferson, a New Haven attorney who often represents youth in trouble with the law.

DeGraffenreidt explained that the police hold onto the summons they issue to the youth if the JRB accepts him or her into the program, and only if the JRB determines the youth is not appropriate for the program - or the youth or “responsible adult” changes their mind - does the case go to juvenile court.

Many of those at the meeting had been frustrated by an earlier screw-up: By the time they learned of the initial request for proposal (RFP) to set up a New Haven juvenile review board, the deadline for submitting the application had already passed. They didn’t want it to happen again. But when they asked De Graffenreit when the new RFP for the $200,000 grant would be issued, said she was not allowed to give out that information. She did mention that the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) posts notices only on Fridays.

State Rep. Toni Walker (pictured on the left, next to Assistant Police Chief Herman Badger) agreed to convene a meeting this week for those interested in actually working on the RFP. That way they’ll be ready when the RFP is released, possibly as soon as this Friday. Walker has become one of the key lawmakers working on issues of juvenile justice, like the juvenile review boards and the Raise the Age campaign.

The proposal would be due six to eight weeks from the date the RFP is issued, during which time the sponsoring state agencies will hold a technical assistance meeting to answer questions about the application.