background, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status.The League stresses that major community partners — courts, law enforcement, schools, youth service agencies, parents and the community at large — should support an effective and efficient system for the assessment and treatment of juveniles in trouble. Annual study to evaluate the practices and progress toward implementation of best practices is essential.
The LWV supports these refinements in the juvenile justice system:
• The continued support and funding of the Department of Corrections Division of Youth Services. The Division of Youth Services oversees all aspects of the Indiana Department of Corrections Juvenile Care. The Division of Youth Services has adopted the OJJDP Balanced and Restorative Justice Model.
• Annual reporting and evaluation by the Division of Youth Services on the effectiveness of the Balanced and Restorative and Justice Model and its impact on juveniles which requires juvenile justice professionals to devote attention to: enabling offenders to make amends to their victims and community, increasing offender competencies and protecting the public through processes in which individual victims, the community, and offenders are all active participants.
• Protection of the legal rights of juveniles by providing counsel to the extent possible from the beginning of the intake process.
• No waiving of counsel for juveniles under 16 years of age.
• A right to counsel for students facing expulsion from school.
• Standardization of the rules of due process for juvenile courts, Probation Department and the Department of Correction.
• Assistance of the Judicial Center in interpreting laws, notifying and educating juvenile probation staff of changes and overseeing their enforcement for juvenile courts and law enforcement agencies.
• Required training in child and adolescent development — physical and mental, typical and atypical — and in family systems for judges and probation officers having juvenile jurisdiction, and support for similar training for attorneys and other relevant personnel in juvenile cases.
• Specialized and ongoing continuing education and training for correctional officers who work with juveniles and specific guidelines for work with the juveniles.
The League’s position also includes recommendations for status offenders, delinquent juvenile offenders, delivery of services, probation, record keeping, the public school’s role, law enforcement and police training, detention and institutionalization and alternatives.
