October 22, 2008

DGI FORUM FOCUSES ON GIRLS

About 200 people attended the Delaware Girls Initiative’s forum, “Understanding Girls in the Juvenile Justice System,” at Clayton Hall on University of Delaware’s Newark campus. They came to hear presentations that elucidated the findings of the Girls Study Group, a three-year study funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The goal of the forum was to give attendees a deeper understanding of female offending and to identify strategies for preventing and reducing female juvenile involvement in delinquency and violence.

First at the podium was Dr. Margaret Zahn, Acting Deputy Director of the Research and Evaluation Division of the National Institute of Justice, who reviewed the statistics related to why girls offend, risk factors related to delinquency among girls, how offending girls affect their homes, schools, and communities, and what gender specific programs can do to help promote positive behavior.

The second presenter, Dr. Diana Fishbein, the study’s researcher on issues of brain development, provided a thorough overview of “Brain Development and Girls’ Delinquency.” Her presentation included data about what characteristics offending girls share, specific areas of gender sensitivity that highlight why and how they offend differently than boys, how brain development plays a major role in girls’ emotional response to stresses, and how this may heighten risk for conduct problems.

After lunch, attendees watched the documentary film GIRL TROUBLE, which features the stories of three female adolescents in San Francisco’s juvenile justice system. Shannell Williams, program director for the Center for Young Women’s Development in San Francisco, facilitated the question-and-answer session at the conclusion of the film.

This event was sponsored by DCJ’s Delaware Girls Initiative, and funded through the Delaware Criminal Justice Council by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Juvenile Accountability Block Grant, the Longwood Foundation, the Welfare Foundation, the Eckerd Family Foundation, and the National Juvenile Justice Network.

Look for the next edition of Commentary, due out in early 2009, for details related to the two presentations.

June 5, 2008

DCJ’s ANNUAL MEETING AND PLAY

On June 4, Delaware Center for Justice celebrated its 88th anniversary at the Baby Grand in a new and dramatic way—by featuring a reader’s theater production of The Exonerated, followed by a sparkling wine and dessert reception.

More than 150 people attended the annual meeting to experience this unique play, which was based on true stories by several individuals who had been convicted of crimes they didn’t commit and sentenced to death before being exonerated—in one case, up to 22 years later.

Featured in the production, directed by Sima Robbins, was a talented cast, most of whom have been very active in community theater: Kathy Buterbaugh, Maurice Chambers, Brian Couch, Slate Gaymon, Richard Gaw, Manon Matthews Neal, Omar Rashada, Gary Robbins, Kristyn Robinson, and James Shanahan.

Also at the annual meeting, DCJ presented the William A. Vrooman “Exemplar of Justice Award” to Kevin O’Connell, for his unflagging commitment to a humane and equitable criminal justice system.

Read more.

May 8, 2008

VISIONS OF JUSTICE IX: EXPLORED ISSUES RELATED TO THE AGING PRISONER

Visions of Justice IX, The Aging Prisoner, explored policies and laws pertaining to the management and care of Delaware’s aging prison population. The forum, which took place May 8, 2008 at Clayton Hall on the University of Delaware Campus in Newark, featured Jonathan Turley, Maurice Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University School of Law and executive director of the Project for Older Prisoners.

Also on the program was the Delaware Panel, which included the Hon. Richard S. Gebelein, chief deputy Attorney General; Carl Danburg, commissioner, Delaware Department of Correction; and, Ina Li, M.D., associate director of Geriatric, Family, and Community Medicine at Wilmington Hospital, Christiana Care Health System.

HIGHLIGHTS OF DR. TURLEY’S PRESENTATION:

• Our prisons are in an acute problem state: we are warehousing prisoners and experiencing a recidivism rate that is far too high.
• Pertaining to older prisoners, we cannot ignore special needs among prisoners, or the costs go through the roof. According to Delaware panelist Carl Danburg, commissioner, Delaware Department of Correction, in our nation it costs $32,000 a year per prisoner; older prisoners cost between $60,000 and $70,000 a year.
• Age is the most reliable predictor of recidivism. For males, age 30 is the dividing line. After this age, male offenders are less likely to recidivate. Age should not be used as a single marker for release, but should be considered as individuals are evaluated for success outside the prison. The reality is this, he said. “…we push out high recidivists and protect low recidivists (like older prisoners) to keep them in prison. It makes no sense.”
• Older prisoners tend to stay away from the rest of the population, as they fear younger prisoners. The older prisoners fill the hospital beds in the corrections system. Suicide is higher among them. There are fatalities from victimization of older prisoners.

ABOUT POPS, THE PROGRAM FOR OLDER PRISONERS

• POPs takes a risk-based approach to dealing with the burgeoning older prisoner population.
• Programs are established through law schools, where students are trained to identify and evaluate low-risk prisoners within the system, providing a path forward for the supervised release of low-risk, high-cost prisoners.

DELAWARE PANEL RESPONDS

• Dr. Li provided more insight into health issues related to our aging population and the older prison population.
• Danburg provided an overview of the current prison population in Delaware and stated that the younger population (those under 55 years of age) is under-represented, and the number of those that are older is rising significantly. From 1992 to 2001, the percentage of older prisoners in the prison population increased from 5.7 percent 7.9 percent.
• Judge Gebelein addressed the audience last, providing an overview of a release mechanism “experiment” undertaken in 2002. The effort’s goal was to reduce the expansion of level V space by reducing the prison population in a controlled way.

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