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Changing the Status Quo for Status Offenders: New York State's Efforts to Support Troubled Teens

NCJ Number
208191
Author(s)
Tina Chiu; Sara Mogulescu
Date Published
December 2004
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This report describes New York State's reform efforts of the Persons in Need of Supervision (PINS) program for juvenile status offenders.
Abstract
During the 1960's, status offender programs were established to keep wayward youth out of trouble and get them back on the right track. Despite the good intentions that such program were founded on, many status offender programs have the opposite effect and actually create more risk for the juveniles involved with them. This report looks at the reform efforts that took place over a 3-year period in New York State's PINS system. The context in which these reforms took place is first established with a review of recent legislative developments and an overview of the PINS system. Child welfare workers, probation leaders, and public officials in four counties came together to examine their PINS systems when the New York State Legislature expanded the definition of status offenders in 2001. The goal of the reform effort in New York was to shift status offenders away from the courts and law enforcement and towards services and community intervention and support options designed to strengthen families and keep kids out of the juvenile justice system. Through the use of evidence-based, community programming, New York has been successful in reducing the number of status offenders formally processed through the juvenile justice system. Figures, endnotes